Depression, War and Recovery: Western Australian Economics 1935 to 19631

Edward Shann resigned his professorial post at the University of Western Australia in 1934 after a period of disquiet about his frequent absences. Satisfaction with economics evaporated at the appointment of his talented replacement, A.G.B. Fisher, who moved on after twenty-three months. Economics was left rudderless for almost four years as financial constraints and the onset of war threatened the survival of economics at the University of Western Australia (UWA). The appointment of F.R.E. Mauldon as Professor in Economics in 1941 heralded a gradual improvement in course content, research activity and staffing. By 1945 the threat to the survival of economics was averted. In the immediate postwar period a pool of talented students recruited through war service schemes and from younger matriculants made their mark as original researchers in academia and in the public service. Interaction with the business and the wider community via the Economic Society was mainly instigated by the professors, Mauldon and I.I. Bowen, and by two of the younger academic staff, D.W. Oxnam and A.M. Kerr, but was never as close as in the Shann era. Participation in the Economic Society of Western Australia by the academic staff was sporadic in the postwar era. Only a minority of the staff was especially important in raising the public profile of the Society.