Australia - National Service (Conscription)Print Page

In 1909, the Federal Government of Prime Minister Alfred Deakin introduced legislation for a form of conscription for boys from 12 to 14 years of age and for youths from 18 to 20 years of age for the purposes of home defence. The legislation did not allow soldiers to be conscripted for overseas service.

Compulsory military service for duty within Australia was revived in 1939, shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War. There was to be no conscription for service overseas, but instead, in a bill passed in February 1943, "Australia" was defined in such a way as to include New Guinea and the adjacent islands. This obliged soldiers in the Citizen Military Force (CMF) to serve in this region, known as the South-West Pacific Area.

Compulsory military training was brought back in 1951 by the Liberal Government as the National Service Scheme. The scheme was criticised as being irrelevant to modern defence needs, and for being a drain on the Regular Army's finances and manpower. In 1959 the scheme was abolished. National Service was re-introduced in 1964, and in May 1965 the Liberal government introduced new powers that enabled it to send national servicemen to serve overseas. There were many misconceptions held that NS was started to provide soldiers for the war in Vietnam but that was fallacious. Cabinet took the decision to commence National Service in 1964 before any commitment was made to Vietnam—National Service was designed to combat 'aggressive communist developments in Asia' and in fact it wasn't until 1965 that National Servicemen were legislated to fight in units in Vietnam—initially National servicemen were to swell the troops on the home front whilst regulars were engaged overseas.

There were 2 call ups each year initially consisting of 81 birth dates but later increasing, in 1968, to 84 to make allowances for all those who deferred, resisted, hid, fled, got married etc and allowed the Army to build to the 37,500 they were seeking. No women were conscripted. From 1965 to 1972, 19,381 national servicemen served in the Vietnam War, with 210 killed and 1,279 wounded. The National Service Scheme was abolished on 5 December 1972 by the newly elected Labor government.

This plaque was generously donated by members of the 11th Intake National Service - February 2018 on the occasion of their 50th anniversary.