The Australian Women's Register

Mrs Jean Scott was a member of the Australian Women’s Land Army, (AWLA) which was formed to do the manual labour on farms, in place of the men who had gone to war. There were 6000 AWLA girls in the Commonwealth; 3,500 permanent and the rest seasonal workers. She enlisted at the age of nineteen and left the city to take up various postings including Griffith and Ballarat. She mostly worked on fruit and vegetables and handled horses. Eight five per cent of the girls in the AWLA were city girls, who adapted well to work in the country. The country girls avoided the AWLA and preferred the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS). There were no perks or rehabilitation offered to the girls of the AWLA. The girls had limited contact with American soldiers; Mrs Scott wrote to three for sometime. They were lonely young men, she thinks. The experience broadened her outlook on life, and she has only happy memories of the time. She has published a book on the Land Army; released in 1986. A poem: “Land Girl’s Lament” is included in her interview.