and Repatriation Branch in London. His AIF appointment was terminated on 2 August 1919. Three of his cousins were killed in the war, and his younger brother Anthony died in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic while on active duty. Post-war activities Street and his wife returned to Australia in 1920 and settled on a property near Lismore in the Western District of Victoria, which had been part of his father-in-law's estate. There he raised and exhibited Polwarth sheep, becoming involved with the Australian Sheep Breeders' Association and the Lismore Agricultural and Pastoral Society. Street was elected to the Hampden Shire Council in 1924 and served as shire president from 1931 to 1932. He was a member of the reserve of officers and in December 1932 was promoted to lieutenant colonel as regimental commander of the 4th Light Horse Regiment. He would later be given command of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade in 1935 and promoted to temporary brigadier. Street was an early member of the Young Nationalists Organisation founded by Robert Menzies. He served as campaign secretary for Thomas Chester Manifold at the 1929 Victorian state election. In 1933, his public profile was raised when Menzies, the Victorian railways minister, appointed him to the Victorian Transport Regulation Board. He was the principal author of its report into transport regulation. Federal politics At the request of Robert Menzies, Street stood for and won Corangamite in 1934. He became Minister of Defence in November 1938 and played a major role in the expansion of the military and munitions production prior to the outbreak of the Second World War and pushed the National Registration Act (1939) through parliament despite strong opposition. Following the outbreak of war he worked to put Australia on a war footing. From November 1939, Menzies abolished the position of Minister for Defence and appointed Street Minister for the Army and Minister for Repatriation. Street died in the Canberra air disaster, 1940, along with two other Cabinet ministers. His son, Tony Street, was Member for Corangamite from 1966 to 1984, and a senior minister in Malcolm Fraser's government. Personal life Street married Evora Frances "Gyp" Currie on 29 June 1918 at St Columba's Church, London. He first met his future wife when he played cricket against her brother in 1912. She had arrived in England in 1916 as a volunteer and served with a Voluntary Aid Detachment. Street had a lifelong