Australian History/1950s

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The decade following the Second World War set in motion a number of significant events whose implications would shape the decades to come. Labour shortages would see a dramatic rise in postwar migration from outside the Anglo-American world.

Australia's longest serving Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, would begin his second term (at the helm of the newly formed Liberal Party), and Australians would experience a prolonged period of economic prosperity as a product of 'the long boom'.

The Snowy River Scheme provided low-paid work for many immigrants to Australia at this time.

It would be a significant decade for sport and technology too, with Melbourne hosting the 1956 Olympics, and the first television telecasts which went along with it.

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