Northern Territory Military Records
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Record Types
Military records identify individuals who either served in the military or who were eligible for service. Evidence that an ancestor served in the military may be found in family records, biographies, census, probate records, civil registration, and church records.
Military records may include:
- Muster rolls
- Personnel files
- Regimental account books
- Letters of deportment
- Lists of officers
- Pay vouchers or records
- Pension records
- Records of leave
- Naval records
- Descriptive rolls
Soldier Settlement
- Soldier settlement, also known as the Soldier Settlement Scheme or Soldiers Settlement Scheme, administered by the Soldier Settlement Commission, was the settlement of land throughout parts of Australia by returning discharged soldiers under schemes administered by the state governments after World War I and World War 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.
- It was federal-state cooperative process of selling or leasing Crown land to soldiers who had been demobilized following the end of their service in this first global conflict.
- Crown land was used where possible, but much land was acquired. By 1924, just over 24 million acres had been acquired or allocated. 23.2 million acres 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.
- In addition to soldiers, nurses and female relatives of deceased soldiers were also able to apply for the scheme.
- 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 program for this new generation of returned soldiers.
- In order to buy or lease such a block soldiers were required to be certified as qualified and to remain in residence on that land for five years. In this way remote rural areas set aside for such settlement were guaranteed a population expansion which remained to increase infrastructure in the area.
- Soldiers who were successful in gaining such a block of land had the opportunity to start a farming life in a number of rural activities including as wool, dairy, cattle, pigs, fruit, fodder and grain.
- These initial land allotments resulted in triumph for some and despair for others. Indeed, specifically following World War I, in some cases these new farmers, unable to cope with the climatic variances of Australia and devoid of the capital to increase stock or quality of life, simply walked off the land back to the large towns and cities from whence they had come.
- The success of the program increased after World War II when the infrastructure required for these new farmers was improved as a direct result of learning from the mistakes that came during and after the first attempts at such settlement.
- Despite the fact that Aboriginal Australians fought alongside other Australian troops in both World Wars, only a very small number of indigenous applications were successful, including two in Victoria and one in New South Wales.[1]
References
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- ↑ "Soldier settlement (Australia)", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldier_settlement_(Australia), accessed 15 March 2022.