"More like a swagman than a parliamentary candidate": Federal election meetings in rural New South Wales and Victoria, 1910-22

Public meetings were one of the key electioneering methods employed in early twentiethcentury Australia. These meetings and the beliefs that surrounded them did much to shape the era's broader approach to electioneering. Rural candidates embarked on extensive tours of their constituencies, reinforcing a political culture focused on local representatives. Wideranging networks of party supporters were required to organise and publicise these tours, and so the public meeting also helped sustain a need for large party memberships. Meetings could be used to target some voter groups, but the time-consuming character of candidates' tours meant that this potential was not often fully realised in the country.