This animated clip begins with a profile sketch of wartime Prime Minister Billy Hughes wearing a hat. Cut-out animation is used to lift the hat off Hughes’s head as an accompanying caption reads ‘what Billy Hughes has under his hat’. Two characters emerge out of Hughes’s head – a German man holding a bag marked ‘German trade’ and a mini-version of Hughes. The mini Hughes delivers a punch to the German character as the caption reads ‘a knockout for German trade’.

Summary by Poppy de Souza

This animated clip begins with a white outline, gradually drawn in by the hand of the artist to show a woman dressed in 19th-century costume. A caption says ‘since the Colonial days, skirts have gradually shrunk’. The cartoon is then blackened to shorten the woman’s dress until it shows the then current 1915 hemline between the knee and ankle. It continues to shorten as the next caption reads: ‘what will next year bring forth?’.

Summary by Poppy de Souza

In this 1916 cartoon by quick-sketch cartoonist Harry Julius, an Allied soldier in a hospital bed is being cared for by a nurse. Suddenly he leaps up and proposes marriage to her and she accepts.  

A report issued in March 1916 observed that wounded and convalescing Anzac troops were falling in love with their nurses, and marrying them. Officials were concerned that these marriages, made in haste during exceptional circumstances, might not be wise. The situation became further complicated as servicemen applied for grants to bring their new brides back to Australia.

The cartoon begins with a handwritten prologue from Colonel Cameron stating that Australia should lead the empire by adopting national compulsory service. Above a map of Australia and New Zealand appears the message, “If the call comes every man will take his turn cheerfully”. A signpost announces “To Turkey”. The map then tips on its side and becomes the profile of a smiling digger.

When this cartoon first screened, conscription had not yet been formally proposed (this occurred with a referendum in October 1916). However, the Universal Service League in Sydney and the Australian Native Association in Victoria were already gathering calling for conscription for all eligible Australian men to serve overseas.

The War Zoo is the original title of this animated cartoon by the renowned Australian caricaturist Harry Julius. The miserable fez-wearing turkey represents the battered Turkish forces. The ferocious German eagle is approached by the dove of peace and the British lion still the king of all. Cartoons like this one, screened about 1915, were a direct and light-hearted form of war news and propaganda for the public at home.

This clip begins with the title card Cartoons of the Moment followed by a scene of cartoonist Harry Julius sketching at an easel. A group of children run up to him and watch as he sketches. The three animated political sketches that follow comment on the economy in Germany during the First World War.

In the first sketch, German policeman PC Von Fritz arrests a fashionably dressed woman and replaces her clothes with newspaper. In the second, a schoolmaster encourages his student to eat slowly so he’ll think it is a lot of food. Finally, in the third sketch, PC Von Fritz is shown eating a shoe, a jam tin and ‘humble pie’ from John Bull.

Summary by Poppy de Souza

Australian sketch artist and caricaturist Harry Julius often ridiculed the enemy by using the techniques of political cartoonists. In this episode of his weekly Cartoons of the Moment, ironically captioned The German Dove of Peace, an eagle represents Germany. His second sketch deals provocatively with contemporary fashion trends, while the third refers to the ‘Rushin’ Bear’ and the ‘Flying Turk’ to show the capture of the eastern Turkish city of Erzurum by Russian forces in February 1916.

After the outbreak of war there was a growing public opinion that all Germans in Australia were a threat to security and should be interned. In this cartoon, this attitude appears as a fear that employees of German origin are protected in government jobs.

News items about public servants with Teutonic names appeared from January 1916 onwards, but it is unclear in which month this cartoon by Harry Julius was created. Julius shows a fortress-like building labelled a government department. A balding and bespectacled public servant pops his head out of the building and says, 'It’s very nice of these Australians. They go and fight to keep me in a nice fat job – Yes.' He produces a sack of money and looks around in a shifty manner. The words 'Better than being interned – Yes' appear.  

This clip begins with a cartoon of Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II surrounded by skulls. A caption illustrates the Kaiser’s thoughts, saying that while he wished to fight in the trenches, the almighty ‘willed it otherwise’. The hand of a skeleton then delivers the skull of a German soldier. The Kaiser sheds a tear but remains remorseless. Meanwhile, a suffragette from England attempts to persuade Mr Hughes to return to England, but he refuses.

The next section shows a man reading a newspaper with the war headline ‘great eclipse’. This is followed by a drawing in the shape of a sun filled with the head of a Kaiser Wilhelm II. He is then supplanted by the head of England’s King George V, captioned 'The Allies’, on a circle that rolls across the screen to 'eclipse’ the German sun.

Summary by Poppy de Souza

Harry Julius’ animation shows a fez-wearing turkey watching over eggs labelled ANZAC, Suvla and Helles. When the big bird says, ‘Strictly on the quiet, I’m very thankful that those bull pups have left Gallipoli’, his words celebrate the Allied troops’ courage and tenacity.

A German soldier’s horse is turned into German sausage (or ‘wurst’) in the first sketch in this weekly episode of Harry Julius’ Cartoons of the Moment. Next, a battered fez-wearing turkey represents the beleaguered Turkish forces. In the third sketch of this clip, Kaiser Wilhelm II – the Crown Prince of Germany – is caricatured with human skulls adorning his uniform to emphasise the enormous loss of life suffered by German troops.

This cartoon begins with a caption that reads, ‘the German monster threatens the world with bloodshed, slavery and death’. An animated King Kong-like monster wreaks havoc on the world, destroying villages, women and children. At the end of the clip, an intertitle says ‘your help is needed and needed now’, accompanied by an illustration of a soldier to encourage young men to enlist in the armed forces.

Summary by Poppy de Souza

This clip begins with the Cartoons of the Moment title card featuring a kangaroo and lion. Cartoonist Harry Julius is shown sketching at his notepad against an ocean background. A headline from the Berlin Lokal Anzeiger newspaper reads ‘Germany is willing to offer peace terms but the Allies keep attacking’. This is followed by the hand of the artist drawing Kaiser Wilhelm II holding tightly onto toys labelled with the names of European countries. The accompanying caption indicates he doesn’t want to give them back.

Summary by Poppy de Souza