The Queensland Shearers Union was one of the first Australian unions, founded in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The union was instrumental in the development of the 1891 Australian shearers' strike, seen today as a key development in the

Australian labour movement The Australian labour movement began in the early 19th century and since the late 19th century has included industrial (Australian unions) and political wings (Australian Labor Party). Trade unions in Australia may be formed on the basis of cra ...

. Together with other unions the Queensland Shearers Union was the genesis of 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 pastoralism, pastoral and mining industries in the late 1880s and it currently has approximately 80,000 ...

Origin

In 1886, the shearers began to organise themselves, following a strike that had started at Wellshot Station and spread to surrounding properties. The Queensland Shearers Union was formed at

Blackall Blackall is a rural town and locality in the Blackall-Tambo Region, Queensland, Australia. The town is the service centre for the Blackall-Tambo Region. The dominant industry in the area is grazing with over 70 homesteads in the locality (as ...

in 1887. By 1890, the union represented almost three thousand workers, and 3,721 were registered by the end of the year. Strike camps were formed when no landowner in the area was willing to accept the workers on their conditions. The following year saw the landowners or pastoralists join forces to fight the new unionism. By this time the Queensland Shearers Union had tens of thousands of members and at a conference they declared that union members were not to work alongside non-union workers. In response, pastoralists organised to form the United Pastoralists Association of Queensland in December 1890. Conflict between the two groups, which also involved police, squatters and soldiers, arose at many towns across Queensland. Initially other unions did not support the

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 ...

shearers and the strike was not successful. The union had a victory in 1890 when, together with wharf labourers and members of the British Seamen's Union, they successfully blockaded the transport of

wool bale A wool bale is a standard sized and weighted pack of classed wool compressed by the mechanical means of a wool press. This is the regulation required method of packaging for wool, to keep it uncontaminated and readily identifiable. A "bale of wool" ...

s in Brisbane. The union was displeased with the engagement of non-unionist labour at Jondaryan.

Strike

At conferences in late 1890 in Sydney and Melbourne, the pastoralists agreed to lower wages, extend work hours and retain the right to withhold wages until the end of the season. These conditions were first enforced in Queensland by the United Pastoralists Association with unionists rejecting them. The first strike camp of

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 ...

was set up at Clermont in Central Queensland on 6 January 1891. Shearers and workers at stations affiliated with the United Pastoralists Association also rejected the new conditions and formed more camps. Together with the Central Queensland Carriers Union and the Central Queensland Labourers' Union, the Queensland Shearers Union called for a

strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) * Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm * Airstrike, ...

. They organised meetings, processions and protests. After a general call-out to members of other unions in March 1891, arrests were made and in the following months many strike leaders were convicted of conspiracy. Almost all of the executive members of the Queensland Shearers Union were imprisoned. A number of those who were jailed later went on to become Members of Parliament. The most notable of those was

Anderson Dawson Andrew Dawson (16 July 1863 – 20 July 1910), usually known as Anderson Dawson, was an Australian politician and unionist who served as the 14th premier of Queensland for one week from the 1 to the 7 of December 1899. This short-lived premier ...

who became

Premier of Queensland The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is appointed ...

in 1899. His premiership was a first for the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

as well as the first parliamentary

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

government anywhere in the world.

Aftermath and legacy

The Queensland Shearers Union joined with the Queensland Labourers' Union to form the Amalgamated Workers' Union in December 1891. The Amalgamated Workers' Union merged with the Australian Workers' Union and became the Queensland branch of the

fourteen years later.

Origin

Strike

Aftermath and legacy

See also

References

Further reading