From ‘Britain’s Farm’ to ‘America’s Junior Partner’ and beyond: post-WWII exhibitions of design in Melbourne

'Britain's Farm' and 'America's Junior Partner': that's what Australia was labelled around the WWII period. Prior to WWII it is argued Australia was largely an agrarian nation serving the interests of the British Empire, while the threats posed by WWII marked the nation's transformation in becoming industrialised and 'Americanised'. The key themes of this paper will be exploring the industrialisation of Australia, and the cultural pull for Australian industrial designers between their country's old cultural and economic allegiances to Britain and the increasing post-WWII dominance of America.