8 January 1941    5KA and 5AU closed down

On 8 January 1941 radio stations 5KA Adelaide and 5AU Port Augusta were closed down by the Post-Master General's Department for alleged 'subversive broadcasts'.

In July 1940 the Australian Attorney-General, W.M. Hughes, announced an official enquiry into the Jehovah's Witnesses following a report to the Director of Naval Intelligence, Melbourne, from the Staff Officer, Intelligence, Port Adelaide, on 26 June, regarding communist activities. The report also stated that the Adelaide group of Jehovah's Witnesses and the radio station 5KA had been under suspicion for some time. It was thought that they were transmitting coded messages to the enemy about ship movements, and also their anti-war stand was seen as bordering on treachery. As a result of the enquiry, together with the fact that the sect had been banned in Canada and New Zealand, the order for the closure of the radio stations was given.

Later, in January 1941, after submissions to the Navy Department by the Jehovah's Witnesses and their legal representative, it was recommended to Hughes that the stations be allowed to re-open under certain conditions. However, before this was finalised the federal government decided that the Witnesses, and any organisation associated with them, should be banned under the National Security (Subversive Associations) Regulations. It was not until after a High Court case, based on Section 116 of the Constitution, which provides for the free exercise of religion, that the sect won its appeal against the Commonwealth, in a judgement handed down on 14 June 1943. They were then able to associate with each other again and their property, which had been confiscated, was restored.

Peter Strawhan, Jehovah's Witnesses and Radio 5KA 1930-1941 , BA (Honours) Thesis, Flinders University, 1984