StateLibQld 1 172507 Hughenden Strike Camp, Queensland, 1891

The 1891 shearers' strike is one of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

's earliest and most important

industrial dispute Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Labor (economics), work. A strike usually takes place in response to grievance (labour), employee grievance ...

s. The dispute was primarily between unionised and non-unionised

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. As ...

workers. It resulted in the formation of large camps of striking workers, and minor instances of

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...

and violence on both sides. The

strike Strike may refer to: People * Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

was poorly timed, and when the union workers ran out of food, they were forced to come to terms. The outcome is credited as being one of the factors for the formation of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

and the rise to power of a pro-Labor Party faction in the

Australian Socialist League The Socialist Labor Party was a socialist political party of Australia that existed from 1901 to the 1970s. Originally formed as the Australian Socialist League in 1887, it had members such as George Black, New South Wales Premier William Hol ...

Background

In 1891, wool production was one of Australian continent's largest industries, however, working conditions for

sheep shearer A sheep shearer is a worker who uses (hand-powered)-blade or machine shears to remove wool from domestic sheep during crutching or shearing. History During the early years of sheep breeding in Australia, shearing was carried out by shepherd ...

s during the 19th century in Australia were consistently poor. With the growth of the wool industry, more workers became shearers and employees of the sheds and as their number and influence rose, many joined unions to campaign for better conditions. By 1890, the

Amalgamated Shearers' Union of Australasia The Amalgamated Shearers' Union of Australasia was an early Australian trade union. It was formed in January 1887 with the amalgamation of the Wagga Shearers Union and Bourke Shearers Union in New South Wales with the Victorian-based Australian S ...

boasted tens of thousands of members, and had unionised thousands of sheds. At their annual conference in Bourke in 1890, the

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

laid down a new rule, which prohibited members from working with non-union workers. Soon after, shearers at Jondaryan Station on the

Darling Downs The Darling Downs is a farming region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland, Australia. The Downs are to the west of South East Queensland and are one of the major regions of Queensland. The name was generall ...

went on

over this issue. As non-union labour was still able to process the wool, the Jondaryan shearers called for help. The

Rockhampton Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. The population of Rockhampton in June 2021 was 79,967, Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. making it the fourth-largest city in the state outside of the ...

wharfie A stevedore (), also called a longshoreman, a docker or a dockworker, is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships, trucks, trains or airplanes. After the shipping container revolution of the 1960s, the number o ...

s responded and refused to touch the Jondaryan wool. The unionists won the battle. This galvanised the

squatters Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

, and they formed the Pastoralists' Federal Council, to counter the strength of the unions. The

also involved itself directly with the shearers as the strike loomed (which would lead to its involvement in the foundation of the

The strike

StateLibQld 1 83039 Strikers' Library at Barcaldine during the 1891 Shearers' Strike

Many

union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

shearers were outraged when Logan Downs Station Manager Charles Fairbain asked the shearers to sign a contract that would reduce the power of their union. On 5 January 1891 the shearers announced a strike until the following demands for a contract were met: *Continuation of existing rates of pay *Protection of workers' rights and privileges *Just and equitable agreements *Exclusion of low-cost Chinese labour, which manifested itself later as Labor Party policy - the Immigration Restriction Act, also known as the

White Australia Policy The White Australia policy is a term encapsulating a set of historical policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origin, especially Asians (primarily Chinese) and Pacific Islanders, from immigrating to Australia, starting i ...

- although anti-Chinese demands were opposed by the Australian Socialist League, which was heavily involved with the strike. The strike started and quickly spread. From February until May, central Queensland was on the brink of civil war. Striking shearers formed armed camps outside of towns. Thousands of armed soldiers protected non-union labour and arrested strike leaders. The unionists retaliated by raiding shearing sheds, harassing non-union labour and committing acts of

, although the incidents of actual violence or arson were few. One of the first

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Festivities may also be held the night before, known as May Eve. T ...

marches in the world took place during the strike on 1 May 1891 in Barcaldine. The

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

reported that 1340 men took part of whom 618 were mounted on horse. Banners carried included those of the Australian Labor Federation, the Shearers' and Carriers' Unions, and one inscribed 'Young Australia'. The leaders wore blue sashes and the

Eureka Flag The Eureka Flag was flown at the Battle of the Eureka Stockade, which took place on 3 December 1854 at Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. It was the culmination of the 1851–1854 Eureka Rebellion on the Victorian goldfields, where miners prote ...

was carried. The "Labor Bulletin" reported that cheers were given for "the Union", "the

Eight-hour day The eight-hour day movement (also known as the 40-hour week movement or the short-time movement) was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses. An eight-hour work day has its origins in the 16 ...

", "the Strike Committee" and "the boys in gaol". It reported the march:

In the procession every civilised country was represented doing duty for the Russian, Swede, French, Dane etc, who are germane to him in other climes, showing that Labor's cause is one the world over, foreshadowing the time when the swords shall be turned into ploughshares and Liberty, Peace and Friendship will knit together the nations of the earth.

But the shearers were unable to hold out. The summer had been unseasonably wet, and the strike was poorly timed for maximum effect on the shearing season (winter). By May the union camps were full of hungry penniless shearers. The strike had been broken. The squatters had won this time, but it had proved a costly exercise. Thirteen union leaders were charged with

sedition Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, estab ...

and conspiracy, taken to Rockhampton for the trial, convicted, and sentenced to three years in gaol on St Helena Island Prison. Three of those imprisoned ( William Hamilton, Julian Stuart, and George Taylor) later became Labor members of parliament – Hamilton in Queensland and the other two in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. The 1891 shearers' strike is credited as being one of the factors for the formation of the

. On the 9 September 1892 the ''Manifesto of the Queensland Labour Party'' was read out under the well known Tree of Knowledge at Barcaldine following the Great Shearers' Strike. The State Library of Queensland now holds the manifesto. In 2008 the historic document was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Australian Register and in 2009, the document was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World International Register.

Literary references and allusions

Henry Lawson Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson (17 June 1867 – 2 September 1922) was an Australian writer and bush poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial perio ...

's well known poem, Freedom on the Wallaby, was written as a comment on the strike and published by

William Lane William Lane (6 September 1861 – 26 August 1917) was an English-born journalist, author, advocate of Australian labour politics and a utopian socialist ideologue. Lane was born in Bristol, England into an impoverished family. After showin ...

in ''the Worker'' in Brisbane, 16 May 1891. And William Lane wrote his novel in 1892, ''The workingman's paradise'', with two aims: to support fundraising efforts for the imprisoned unionists, and to explain unionism and socialism to those who would listen.

Banjo Paterson Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, (17 February 18645 February 1941) was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the ...

's song

Waltzing Matilda "Waltzing Matilda" is a song developed in the Australian style of poetry and folk music called a bush ballad. It has been described as the country's "unofficial national anthem". The title was Australian slang for travelling on foot (waltzing) ...

, an unofficial Australian anthem, was also written about this era of shearers' industrial disputes in Queensland. Helen Palmer's song 'The Ballad of 1891', set to music by Doreen Jacobs, details the lead up to the strike and aftermath. The 1975 film Sunday Too Far Away, directed by Ken Hannam has been partly inspired by the events surrounding this strike. Playwright

Errol O'Neill Errol O'Neill (1945–2016) was an Australian activist, author, actor and playwright, based in Brisbane, Queensland. O'Neill was an activist for workers' rights and against the Vietnam War and apartheid Apartheid (, especially South ...

wrote ''On the Whipping Side – a play about the 1891 shearers' strike.'' This was first performed by the

Queensland Theatre Company Queensland Theatre, formerly the Queensland Theatre Company and Royal Queensland Theatre Company, is a professional theatre company based in Brisbane, Australia. It regularly performs in its own Bille Browne Theatre and the Queensland Performi ...

in 1991 and toured parts of Queensland.

Legacy

The site of the striking shearers' campsite in Barcaldine is listed on the

Queensland Heritage Register The Queensland Heritage Register is a heritage register, a statutory list of places in Queensland, Australia that are protected by Queensland legislation, the Queensland Heritage Act 1992. It is maintained by the Queensland Heritage Council. As a ...

Notes

References

* ''The shearers' war : the story of the 1891 shearers' strike'' (1989) Stuart Svensen, University of Queensland Press. * ''The shearers' war : the story of the 1891 shearers' strike'' (rev ed, 2008) Stuart Svensen, Hesperian Press * ''Industrial War - The Great Strikes 1890 - 1894'' (1995) Stuart Svensen * ''A Short History of the Australian Labor Movement'' (1944) Brian Fitzpatrick, Rawson's Bookshop, Melbourne.

External links

The Shearers' Strikes (Barcaldine)125th anniversary of the Manifesto of the Queensland Labour Party
at

State Library of Queensland The State Library of Queensland is the main reference and research library provided to the people of the State of Queensland, Australia, by the state government. Its legislative basis is provided by the Queensland Libraries Act 1988. It contai ...

Striking shearers burn boat
''

Green Left Weekly ''Green Left'', previously known as ''Green Left Weekly'', is an Australian socialist newspaper, written by progressive activists to "present the views excluded by the big business media". The newspaper was founded in 1990. Green Left is the d ...

'', August 24, 2005
Barcaldine: famous for its role in the development of the Australian labour movement
''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'', 17 February 2005
The Ballad of 1891
- Lyrics (and an MP3) to the famous Australian trade union song about the strike

at

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:1891 Australian Shearers' Strike Australian Shearers Strike, 1891 Labour disputes in Australia Shearer's strike Agriculture and forestry strikes Sheep shearing Australian sheep industry 1890s in Queensland