Defence & veteransDepartment of State
Department of Defence
21 December 1921 – 13 November 1939
The second Department of Defence, which administered the Navy, Army and Air Force together between the wars and also controlled munitions supply and, until 1938, civil aviation.
How it came into existence
Formed on 21 December 1921 by the Hughes government, as part of post-war retrenchment, by merging the Department of Defence (1901) and the Department of the Navy.
- Military administration
- Munitions and factories
- Civil aviation
- Naval administration
- Naval dockyards and establishments
Changes during its life
- Ordnance manufacture
- Civil aviation administration under the Air Navigation Act 1920
- Munitions supply (Munitions Supply Board and government factories)
- Defence purchasing and contracts
- Defence supply planning
How it ended
Abolished on 13 November 1939, after the outbreak of the Second World War, and split into the Department of Defence Co-ordination and separate Departments of the Navy, the Army and Air.
- Administration of the RAAF
- Support of the Air Board
- Defence policy and co-ordination
- Defence Committee and Council of Defence secretariat
- Administration of the Army
- Support of the Military Board
- Navy Office
- Support of the Naval Board
Main functions
- Defence policy and the Council of Defence
- Administration of the Navy, Army and Royal Australian Air Force through the Naval, Military and Air Boards
- Munitions supply and government factories (until 1939)
- Civil aviation (until 1938)
- Defence works and establishments
Bodies in this portfolio (4)
- Commonwealth Harness, Saddlery and Leather Accoutrements Factory 1911–1929
- Commonwealth Woollen Mills 1915–1923
- Civil Aviation Branch 1921–1936
- Civil Aviation Board 1936–1938
Lineage
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Sources
Primary sources
- Administrative Arrangements Order of 13 April 1932 (sets it out)