Topic : Australia's responses to the threat of communism: domestic

Image 1 The late 1940s were seen as a time of progress and consumerism after the hardships of economic depression and war.

Image 2 Pieces of propaganda like this show how concerned Australians were about the spread of communism, and also how much they disliked the ideology.

Image 3 Ben Chifley: Labor Prime Minister 1945-1949.

Image 5 Robert Menzies: Australia's longest serving Prime Minister 1949-1963.

Image 1 One of the Liberal Party's 1949 election pledges was to ban the CPA; Menzies now had to find a way to fulfil this promise.

Image 2 It was this piece of legislation that the government had to rely on to be able to name someone as a communist with little or no evidence against them.

Image 1 Looking for 'reds under the bed'; anti-communist feeling only increased after the 'No' vote in the 1951 Referendum.

Image 2 Vladimir Petrov: the Soviet spy who defected to Australia in 1954.

Image 3 This picture of Mrs. Petrov being forced to return to the Soviet Union after her husband's defection became famous in 1950s Australia.