Soldier settlement (Australia)

Soldier settlement refers to the settlement of land throughout parts of Australia by returning discharged soldiers under schemes administered by the state governments after World Wars I and II.

Such settlement plans initially began during World War I, with South Australia first enacting legislation in 1915. Similar schemes gained impetus across Australia in February 1916 when a conference of representatives from the Commonwealth and all States was held in Melbourne to consider a report prepared by the Federal Parliamentary War Committee regarding the settlement of returned soldiers on the land. The report focused specifically on a Commonwealth-State cooperative process of selling or leasing Crown land to soldiers who had been demobilised following the end of their service in this first global conflict. The meeting agreed that it was the Commonwealth Government's role to select and acquire land whilst the State government authorities would process applications and grant land allotments.

Crown land was used where possible, but much land was acquired. By 1924, just over 24 million acres (97,000 km²) had been acquired or allocated. Of this nearly 6.3 million acres (25,000 km²) was purchased and 18 million acres (73,000 km²) was crown land set aside. 23.2 million acres (93,900 km²) had been allotted 23,367 farms across Australia.

Other than supporting soldiers and sailors that were returning from those wars the various governments also saw the opportunity of attracting both Australians and specific groups of allied service personnel to some of the otherwise little inhabited, remote areas of Australia. Although the Commonwealth held responsibility for defence, and thus might have taken responsibility for demobilised soldiers, it was the States which took responsibility for land settlement and thus enacted separate soldier settlement schemes. The States also wished to take an active role in recognising the contribution of soldiers.

Areas that gained such settlement included places such as:

By 30 June 1924 a total of 23,367 returned soldiers and sailors had taken up settlement farms on 23,275,380 acres (94,192 km²) across Australia as per the following breakdown:

The procedure of supporting such soldiers was repeated after World War II with all Australian state governments using the previous and amended forms of such acts of parliament to reinvigorate the programme for this new generation of returned soldiers.

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