Depression to Hope: Hope Forest & the great depression

Join us to hear about the Great Depression's impact in SA and how individuals and groups coped, sparking the creation of Hope Forest.

Dr David Faber will share the impact of the Great Depression on South Australia. Simon Fitzpatrick will share about how one individual tried to survive doing it tough in the southern vales and Emily Richardson will describe how the small community of Hope Forest settlement was formed by a group seeking an alternative life to unemployment in Port Adelaide. Come and listen and learn and then share any stories or connection you have with the Hope Forest district.

Drinks (beer & wine $5/glass) & nibbles (hot & cold $5/plate) will be available to purchase.
Proceeds to the Hope Forest Residents Association to support the 2025 ANZAC event.

Dr David Faber - A Fine Paradise to Starve In: The Great Depression in South Australia
Labour historian with an interest in oral history, archival research and the history of ideas, poet and much more. 
The global capitalist socioeconomic crisis that was the Great Depression hit Australia particularly hard. The nation had `overleveraged’ development & war, and its under-diversified economy was over-exposed to world commodity prices for its staple exports. This situation fed ferocious class conflict over which sections of the community should pay most to retire Australian debt & which measures were required to fund a way out of the slump & the mass unemployment it brought with it.

Simon Fitzpatrick - Doing it tough on the southern vales
Retired teacher, principal and government bureaucrat Simon spends his time researching family and local history and downtime travelling to Turkey and mustering cattle in far north South Australia.
Simon will share his great uncle's story during the Great Depression in the early 1930s, an itinerant worker on The Fleurieu whilst "residing" on Aldinga Beach.

Emily Richardson - Out of the tough times: Hope Forest Settlement
History lover, Assistant manager at the National Archives of Australia Adelaide office, avid story collector and co-author of local histories Within Living Memory and Beyond The Range.
In 1931 fifteen families sought to escape unemployment with the hope of self sufficiency creating the Hope Forest Settlement. Hear their story and the long term legacy they left behind in the Hope Forest community.