David Temple (4 July 1862 - 27 September 1921) was an influential early

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 ...

n trade unionist. He was born at

Creswick Creswick is a town in west-central Victoria, Australia, 18 kilometres north of Ballarat and 122 kilometres northwest of Melbourne, in the Shire of Hepburn. It is 430 metres above sea level. At the 2016 census, Creswick had a populatio ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, where he became a miner and part-time shearer. In 1886, he became the founder and secretary of the

Australian Shearers' Union The Australian Shearers' Union (also known as the Australasian Shearers Union, sometimes referred to as the Creswick Shearers' Union) was a significant but short-lived early trade union in Victoria and southern New South Wales. It was formed on 12 ...

, in response to a cut in shearing rates, initially largely enrolling and organising members across Victoria on his own. In January 1887, Temple's union merged with smaller shearers unions in New South Wales to form 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 ...

with Temple as general secretary, which by 1890 had become, according to

Clyde Cameron Clyde Robert Cameron, (11 February 191314 March 2008), was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served in the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1980, representing the Division of Hindmarsh. He wa ...

, the "largest and most effective labour organization in Australia". In attributing credit for the union's success, historian Nick Dyrenfurth concluded that "while illiamSpence conceived of the novel idea of sending out an army of paid organisers, it was Temple who led the operation on the ground". Temple was also a key supporter of the union's involvement in the 1890 Australian maritime dispute and the union's support for the new Labor Party in 1891. Temple initially supported the amalgamation of the ASU into the

Australian Workers' Union The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the 1880s and currently has approximately 80,000 members. It has exerci ...

in 1894, but became opposed due to issues with the merger process, falling out bitterly with union president and long-term colleague

William Spence William Guthrie Spence (7 August 1846 – 13 December 1926), was an Australian trade union leader and politician, played a leading role in the formation of both Australia's largest union, the Australian Workers' Union, and the Australian Labor ...

in the process; he stormed out of the merger conference and resigned the secretary role. Temple and Spence continued to clash bitterly in the years following his departure around their respective contributions to the union. He later ran a grocery business and cleared postal boxes in Footscray. He died in 1921 and was buried in the Anglican section of

Fawkner Cemetery Fawkner Memorial Park is located in the north-western Melbourne suburb of Fawkner, Victoria, Australia. It is the largest cemetery by land size in the state, and managed by Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust. Merlynston Creek, a tributary ...

. The Australian Workers' Union's

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

headquarters was named David Temple House on 11 July 1986.

References

{{authority control 1862 births 1921 deaths Australian trade unionists Australian book and manuscript collectors