While developments continued in and around the Shepparton district, there was a counterpoint to this progressive activity.
Itinerant workers and the unemployed continued to lack suitable housing and found refuge where they could around the town, many of them in river-bank humpies.
The growth of the town was presenting an accommodation problem and, as the Slum Abolition Report 1936–37 noted, there were some 150 dwellings in Shepparton housing two or more families, and 69 river-bank huts housing 121 adults and 77 children.
Added to this was the alien ban in November 1939, which essentially took action against further aggregation of foreigners in Shepparton.
According to a directive by the Minister for the Interior, John McEwen, only alien migrants who were dependent on relatives already living here (in Shepparton) would be permitted to settle in the district.
McEwen claimed that the government had never had any reason to believe that aliens were affecting the employment of Australians in land industries, except in “obvious areas” such as sugarcane-growing regions in Queensland, irrigated areas near Leeton in southern NSW, and in Shepparton.
There was further reason for the restriction in Victoria because of the aggregation of aliens in the Shepparton area — clearly, the region was recognised by this time for its ethnic diversity.
The Shepparton Heritage Centre is always looking for volunteers. If you are interested, contact the centre on 4831 8659.
