Will You Fight Now Or Wait for This?
Australia was in somewhat of a unique position during World War I. They were involved in the war and they needed manpower, but despite two attempts to introduce conscription in 1916 and 1917, participation in the Australian armed forced remained voluntary throughout all of World War I. Conscription in one form did exist beginning in 1911, but a conscripted force could not be used for a foreign war. So not only did the Australian government have to convince men to sign up for a war that was across the ocean but they also could not compel men to fight when they ran low on manpower.
Propaganda in Australia was two-fold, convincing men to volunteer for the war and to stifle any opposition to the war. Compared to the British propaganda operation, the Australian propaganda machine was a decentralized mess. For a period, propaganda was regulated at the state level. As time went on and it became apparent conscription was never going to happen, the propaganda took on a much more deliberate and persuasive tone.
This poster was made in 1918 and shows the desperation of the Australian government for manpower. The poster depicts a man surrounded by Germans. An elderly man has been shot, a woman is pleading for mercy, and in the background a woman is half undressed and being restrained by German soldiers. It depicts a worst-case scenario and one that was deemed highly unlikely.
There was little chance that the German army would make a move on Australia when they had much bigger fish to fry throughout Europe and even the United States. But desperate times called for desperate measures, and the propaganda officials in Australia were willing to put the fear of German invasion into the minds of its populace in order to get men to fight in its armies.