The 1940s had been the most difficult years in Australia�s history, with the long war against Japan bringing home the point just how vulnerable the country was. The war also shook up Australian society internally. In the 1950s and 60s, there was the rise to undreamed-of affluence. During the 1950s, Australia enjoyed the most even income distribution of any western industrialized nation. The 1960s were the really affluent years. The most radical and revitalizing change however was in immigration which powered the development of Australia.

Boom in Immigration.The spectre of a Japanese invasion in World War 2 had convinced Australian�s that the country�s population should be increased. One of the most spectacular migration programmes of the 20th century was carried out. Half of the assisted migrants were to be British, but the other half could come from anywhere � as long as they were white. This was known as the now infamous White Australia policy.

More than 2 million migrants arrived between 1945 and 1965, and Australia�s population jumped from 7 to 11 million. In 1945 Australia was predominantly Anglo-Saxon country in which 98 percent of inhabitants had a British background. Suddenly it was confronted with massive contingents of Italians, Greeks, Germans, Dutch and Yugoslavs who could hardly speak English. They setup their own communities, shops and newspapers, entered the workforce and very soon shattered the complacent, sterile mould of Aussie life. These �New Australians� were much of the workforce behind many of the intense development of Australia in the 1950s and 60s, providing manual labour in steelworks, mines, factories and on the roads.

The White Australia policy was formally abolished in 1973. So rapid was the turn-around, that at present time one-third of all immigrants are now Asian.

The roaring and affluent 1960s. Australia had begun turning itself from a nation of primary industry (sheep, wheat and cattle) to one of manufacturing. Between 1940 and 1960 the number of factories doubled; refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum cleaners and cars became available to the great mass of population for the first time. The success of the Australian car � the Holden automobile, was seen as a symbol of Australia�s progress in the 1950s and 60s: it combined American finance (it was part of General Motors), European migrant labour and affluent Australian consumer market. (picture, right - PM of Australia, Ben Chiefly at the launch of the Holden saloon car in 1948). In 1956, Melbourne also hosted the Olympic Games.

By the mid-1960s, Australia was experiencing a period of unprecedented prosperity (just like the Americans) and its citizens were enjoying, after the Americans, the highest standard of living in the world. They were also living in the most urbanized nation in the world, with 75% of the population in the cities. The Sydney Opera House was also built during the �glorious� 60s. [see panorama of the Sydney Opera House]

In the meantime, the shape of Australian society was being entirely changed. In the early 1960s, the number of white-collar workers exceeded for the first time, the number of blue-collar workers and then streaked far ahead. Australia, regarded for so long as a working man�s paradise, had almost unnoticed transformed itself into one of the most middle-class nations in the world. The European migrants had also transformed the staid English social customs and opened Australians up to new ideas and new ways at looking at the world. Australia began to relish plurality instead of the mono-cultural code of the pre-wars years. Australia had started to become a �mini America� with a multicultural society.