In 1917, despite attempts to crush them, the IWW moved from a civil rights campaign within democracy; to a campaign of sabot-age.
Sabot-age has a long history within the labour movement, and the IWW was at the time accused of industrial arson. In addition, the Commonwealth through NSW and Victorian special police believed the IWW was capable of further actions (and from limited readings of the archives, I believe that some IWW members maintained independent capacities for this kind of action).
With the 1917 arson campaign, the Australian government entered a period of gross anti-Labour and anti-Labour hysteria. While the complexion of pro-Arbitration unions meant that there was a limited capacity for this kind of state barbarity to provoke a radical social-democratic response; the decision of the IWW to go underground legitimised militant action.
With the delay of returned servicemen in 1919, and the continuance of anti-labour war acts, the foreign and domestic returned service riots caused considerable consternation in both the nationalist and imperialist bourgeoisie. The solution was obvious: organisation of paramilitaries under sensible control for the continuance of governance. Sir John Monash was tasked with this action.
As the 1920 depression bit hard, the already radical IWW co-opted more and more of the radical wing of the labour movement, pre-empting the formation of a pro-Bolshevik communist party (for the moment). The continued bombing campaign saw a concerted effort to free the Sydney prisoners, that succeeded in a limited way in a small unit assault on a magistrates court, during a subsidiary hearing.
The shit hits the fan, and by 1926 Monash has been given a Vice-Regal position. Speaking of the shit, the White Armies had bludgeoned, cudgelled and forced the drinking of meths and turps amongst trade unionists. The effect of this was more pronounced in rural areas, leading to a bizarre radicalisation of the Australian Workers Union due to repression. The AWU continues to claim by 1926 that it is the embodiment of the One Big Union, unlike the underground and now Russia-friendly illegal IWW. Areas that did not see gross depredations included forestry, the docks and the coal mines. This would change in 1929.
The attempts to impose massive arbitrated restrictions against forestry, docks and mines failed abysmally. The government splintered as waves of state police were shot off occupied worksites. (The hysteria of IWW led "last ditch" defence efforts should be considered in the light of the Austrian social-democrats; or the decision of 4 November by the young workers of Budapest). With police failing, and the federal government unable to command a majority of the house, certain gentlemen approached Monash to form a government by executive council in order to maintain the constitution of Australia, the true constitution of the founders. Monash's advanced networks of paramilitary mobilised, and with some chaos managed to achieve order.
And there you've got a fascist government in Australia prior to 1931. The fascism is going to be a mixture of British Racialism in Australian Nationalism; and British Racialism in British Imperialism.
There's no way such a fascist government would support the Axis. Australian racial myths have been fundamentally associated with Britishness (to 1942) in the Nationalist bent, and until the late 1960s in the Imperialist bent. The Australian bourgeoisie did organise multiple paramilitaries to beat Labor and labour into a pulp, these were racialist, right wing and dictatorial. At the same time they were not self-consciously "fascist," and merely possessed either all the characteristics of reactionary Torydom, or a kind of progressive-reactionary "new" right politics. This is much more like Horthy's fascism than even Benito's. This is nothing near Franco or Hitler.
yours,
Sam R.