John Alexander Salmon "Julian" Stuart (18 December 1866 – 3 July 1929) was an Australian

trade unionist A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

, journalist, poet and politician.

Early career

John Alexander Salmon Stuart was born in

Raymond Terrace Raymond Terrace, locally known as "Raymo” or "The Terrace", is a town in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, about by road north of Newcastle, New South Wales, Newcastle on the Pacific Highway, Australia, Pacific Highway. Establi ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, and grew up on the Clarence River. After a short-lived career as a school teacher and then as a clerk in Sydney, Stuart began to live the life of an itinerant worker, moving about rural New South Wales and

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

. As he became more aware of the poor working conditions of shearers and other farm workers, he became more and more involved with the budding

trade union movement The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...

. As one of the leaders of the

1891 Australian shearers' strike The 1891 shearers' strike is one of Australia's earliest and most important industrial disputes. The dispute was primarily between Trade union, unionised and non-unionised wool workers. It resulted in the formation of large camps of striking wor ...

, Stuart was jailed and sentenced to three years' imprisonment with

hard labour Penal labour is a term for various kinds of forced labour that prisoners are required to perform, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of sentence involving penal labour have included inv ...

. Upon release from jail, Stuart worked for the Labour Electoral League, the forerunner of the

New South Wales Labor Party The New South Wales Labor Party, officially known as the Australian Labor Party (New South Wales Branch) and commonly referred to simply as NSW Labor, is the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The branch is the current ...

Western Australia

In 1895, Stuart and his new wife moved to Coolgardie with the idea of working the goldfields. Life on the goldfields was tough and in 1901, Stuart finally gave up on the idea of prospecting and moved to

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie-Boulder (or just Kalgoorlie) is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder as the surroundi ...

, where he undertook a variety of jobs, and became an active member of the Australian Workers' Association. In 1902, he was elected to the Board of the '' Westralian Worker'', the state's first labor newspaper, and then as editor in 1903. By this time, he was also a regular contributor to '' The Bulletin''. In 1906, he was elected to the

Western Australian Legislative Assembly The Western Australian Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Western Australia, an Australian state. The Parliament sits in Parliament House, Perth, Parliament House in the Western Australian capi ...

, representing the seat of Mount Leonora.Clarke, Sally, In the Space Behind His Eyes, A Biography of Donald. R. Stuart, 1913 – 1983, Claverton House, Lesmurdie, Western Australia, 2006

Works

Later years

In 1919, Julian Stuart was injured in an accident at a timber mill and became an invalid. Nevertheless, he continued to write for various publications, including ''The Bulletin'', the '' Brisbane Worker'' and the '' Western Mail''. He died in Perth in 1929. He was survived by his wife and five children, including the writers Lyndall Hadow and Donald Stuart.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stuart, Julian 1866 births 1929 deaths Australian journalists Trade unionists from Western Australia Westralian Worker