FYI:
http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/non-cms/databases/lau/arc-pro/contents/jws/jwch2.htm
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Australian History
Early Australian History
The history of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Australia dates back to around 1896 when Arthur Williams Senior of Kalgoorlie read the Watchtower Society book The Divine Plan of the Ages and began meeting with 12 others in Perth. Williams moved to Donnybrook in 1902 where he distributed Studies in the Scriptures throughout the area and spread the word to customers of the store he owned as well as inviting people to his home for discussion. At the same time, Charles Russell himself was making plans to spread his teaching in Australia. In 1901 he sent four Bible students to Australia to establish the movement and develop a branch office.
The "Millennial Dawnists" as they were known in the time of Russell, first met in Melbourne in 1903. By the following year over 100 people were receiving Zion's Watchtower and a branch office of the Society was established. One function of this branch was to distribute the tract The People's Pulpit. By the beginning of World War I, there were 21 travelling preachers who distributed the Society's publications. Approximately 35 newspapers in Australia were publishing Russell's sermons. Watchtower subscriptions increased substantially. In 1921 the first national assembly was held in Sydney with an attendance of 300.
In 1924, radio became a tool for the movement as a small radio station was established in Launceston, Tasmania. Local people read scripts on air provided by the Society's headquarters. Later that decade, negotiations to purchase radio stations in New South Wales, South Australia, and Queensland had also been conducted. At one point in time, twenty radio stations broadcast the Society's message in the form of Bible plays, sermons and hook-ups from the United States.
In 1929 the Society's office moved from Melbourne to Sydney. This took place just prior to the arrival of Alexander MacGillivary from the Society's New York headquarters. From the base in Sydney, MacGillivary organised missions in Fiji, Tahiti, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and China. Prior to World War II, these missions were coordinated from the Australian branch with the assistance of the ship 'Lightbearer'. At this time the Society in Australia had 66 full-time and 400 part-time volunteer workers.
Another significant event in the history of Jehovah's Witnesses in Australia was the visit of the second president, Joseph Rutherford, in 1938.
World War II
In the concern for national security, a Federal Government order was issued in January 1941 that 'any body, corporate or unincorporate...prejudicial to the defence of the Commonwealth or efficient prosecution of the war, is thereby declared to be unlawful' (Gillman 1988) . On this basis, Commonwealth authorities moved to dissolve the organisation. Meetings, printing and the circulation of the Society's publications was prohibited and the office, factory and warehouse of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Strathfield, New South Wales, was seized. Nonetheless, the Society continued during this period, meeting in homes and door knocking using only the Bible. Despite restrictions, the movement held its national convention in 1941 with delegates travelling from all over Australia, some even using cars with charcoal-fed gas producers.
In 1943 the ban was successfully appealed in the High Court and found to contravene the right to religious freedom guaranteed by the constitution. Several years later, Justice Brennan of the Queensland Supreme Court explained what happened in the following terms:
"A state of hysteria existed in our public life for some time after the outbreak of the present world disaster. When it became evident that our very existence was likely to be immediately threatened by the invasion of a foreign power, the hysteria became a panic. Jehovah's Witnesses, as an organisation, was set upon and was subsequently banned. When matters somewhat cooled down, the High Court of Australia, in its traditional British calmness, gave Judgement against the banning of the organisation and restored the Jehovah's Witnesses its constitutional rights to religious freedom."
Significantly, despite the opposition, the Jehovah's Witnesses increased from 2 500 (1940) to 4 300 in 1943 when the ban was removed.
Post World War II Expansion and Development
In 1947 circuit assemblies (regional meetings) were initiated and the following year, district conventions (generally including parts of several states) began. In 1951 then president Knorr visited for the national convention in Sydney. This visit resulted in the 5 year appointment of American, Theodore Jaracz, as Australian branch overseer. Jaracz was still a member of the Governing Body of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Brooklyn, New York in 1999.
In 1954 the first film produced by the Jehovah's Witnesses, 'New World Society in Action' was released showing the world headquarters, its facilities and procedures, such as its tract publishing operations. This film drew large crowds and that year the total number of Jehovah's Witnesses increased to just below seven thousand. In 1956 Knorr made his third visit to Sydney for the national convention which had an impressive attendance of 8 149 given overall the size of the movement. In 1957 the movement had 10 290, representing an increase of just less than 7000 in one decade.
One prominent convention was that held in Melbourne in 1963 with an attendance of 13 142. The international assembly of 1969 with an attendance of just over 26 000 required the use of 6 trains, 40 coaches and a number of chartered planes.
The 1970s and Beyond
By 1970 it was calculated that the movement had 1946 full time ministers or "Special Pioneers" . Part of the success of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Australia has arisen from its appeal to immigrants and those with non-English speaking backgrounds. In 1974, fourteen ethnic congregations were established and this figure has since increased to 52. In 1999, congregations using 23 different languages existed around Australia: Arabic, Cambodian, Chinese (Madarin and Cantonese), Finnish, French, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Maltese, Polish, Portugese, Russian, Samoan, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Turkish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. Circuit assemblies and district conventions are also held in most of these languages, although the Greek, Spanish and Italian congregations are large enough to hold their own circuit assemblies and conventions.
Another significant development was the expansion of their Australian branch office facility, referred to as 'Bethel', meaning "House of God". Sizeable extensions were made in 1972 to the facilities at Strathfield, NSW, and in 1977 new and larger premises were constructed at Ingleburn, the work being done almost entirely by volunteers. Groups of families travelled, sometimes from as far as Perth, to assist in the construction for several weeks at a time.
In the late 1970s the linotype and hot-metal press was replaced with a more modern printing press similar to that used at the world headquarters. Significantly, The Watchtower Society is run entirely on a voluntary basis and in 1999, 250 volunteer workers lived at the Bethel site.
An additional development in the 1970s was the 'Quickly Build Method' in which congregations would discuss what was required to build their own churches, known as Kingdom Halls, with a committee of experienced builders. The initial stages were then organised, such as council permits and the pouring of the concrete slab. Then several congregations converged to build the church. Most were unqualified, though tradespeople among the Jehovah's Witnesses supervised the work and participated to complete the church in one or two weekends. The average time taken to complete a church was 36 hours. In addition to churches, larger assembly halls were constructed in the 1970s to accommodate the circuit assemblies. Currently Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane possess these.
Three international conventions were held in Australia during the 1970s and one in 1983 that involved a media hook-up between Australia and New Zealand. Then, in 1993, a series of conventions was held in various Australian states with a combined attendance of 81622. In Sydney this was held in the Football Stadium. In addition to English, five different languages were used: Greek, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and Serbo-Croatian.