In 1964 the Prime Minister of Australia, Robert Menzies introduced the National Service Act.

While military conscription was used in the years leading up to World War I and World War II, the nature of this particular model and the controversy surrounding the Vietnam War (1965 – 1972), created huge divisions and debate within Australia.

Under the National Service Act, often referred to as the birthday ballot, twenty-year-old Australian men were required to register with the Government. Televised national ballots were held and if their birth date was drawn out, they were required to perform at least two years of full time service in the army, where they could be sent overseas at will.

While my father was too young for the ballot, my uncle was called up in 1967. He was against the Vietnam War and hired a lawyer from Melbourne to claim exemption. Getting an exemption was extremely difficult at the time. Young men who couldn’t prove that they were unfit for service or conscientious objectors, faced imprisonment if they did not comply with conscription. My uncle won his case on the grounds that he was needed at home to support my grandfather on the farm.

The incident caused a lot of controversy within the farming community given that a lot of young men, including my father, supported conscription and would have gone to war if called up.

This division was played out on a much bigger scale across Australia during the late sixties and early seventies, with groups like the Draft Resisters Movement, Save Our Sons and the Youth Campaign Against Conscription at the forefront of anti-Vietnam protests.