The Shearers of Yesterday
1891 Shearers Strike
The old shearing days cannot be left, however, without passing reference to the trouble which blazed up in 1891 and provided us with the historic Shearers' Strike of that memorable year.
It is too often forgotten in recalling
this trouble that it was associated, primarily, with the
great maritime strike that immediately preceded it, though
it was directly due to the Queensland pastoralists in 1890
on the Darling Downs deciding to employ non-union labour
and insisting on what they regarded as their traditional
rights in freedom of contract.
Jondaryan Test Case
A start was made on Jondaryan Station, and
the gauge of battle was immediately accepted by the
shearers. In 1891 the Queensland squatters, backed by those
in New South Wales and Victoria, decided to enforce an
agreement which involved freedom of contract as distinct
from preference to unionists.
The shearers decided not to sign on under an agreement
which ignored the Union, and the squatters retaliated by
recruiting non-Union labour.
Union Picket Lines
Trouble began at Logan Downs Station (near
Clermont, Queensland) in the central district, where
unionists formed a camp and endeavored to intercept
non-unionists on their way to the sheds.
The trouble spread as the season advanced; some leaders
were arrested and sentenced to various terms of
imprisonment for intimidation, conspiracy, or rioting, and
the Government sent mounted police and troops to the
disaffected areas to prevent disturbances. Shearing was
completed mainly with non-union labour.
Peace Conference
The dispute had threatened to extend to
the southern colonies, but a conference was arranged, the
Union agreed to allow non-union and Union labour to work
together, and a compromise was affected on such questions
as hours of work, shearing wet sheep, etc.
This agreement was adopted in Queensland also, and remained
in force until April 1894, when the squatters decided to
draw up new terms.
The Queensland Union and the Australian Workers' Union
(which represented shearers and shed-hands in New South
Wales and Victoria) prepared to resist.
But they had no
funds, their request for a conference was refused, and the
squatters declined to use the machinery provided for
voluntary arbitration.
Shearing Shed Rules
A sixteen point agreement was ratified by
representatives of the Darling Downs Stockowners
Association and the Queensland Shearers Union at
Pittsworth, 13 June 1890. The accord was expected to
prevent disputes "for many years to come".
The optimism was short lived when a few months later the
Queensland Shearers Union refused to work with non-union
labour at Jondaryan Woolshed and union shearers were
withdrawn from the property for the 1890 season.
Photo:
State Library of Queensland Neg.
No. 46732
History Making Machine
In 1891 two pioneers of machine
shearing, James Davidson and John Howard from the Sydney
based company, Dangar, Gedye & Malloch demonstrated the
new invention at the Hughenden Show in Western
Queensland.
Unable to find an engine to drive the shearing blades, they
improvised using the back wheel of a wool wagon. With
volunteers manning the drive to produce power, the
demonstration, which otherwise might have been disastrous,
proved an outstanding success.
The event was a great example of mechanical ingenuity and a
priceless advertisement for the newly invented machine and
company. Howard later shouted his volunteers a glass of
beer, setting him back five shillings and three pence a
bottle.
Image: The Longreach Leader - 7
December 1938
Trove Digitized Newspapers - National
Library of Australia
The Strike of 1894
Shearing was begun with non-union labour.
The unionists, as before formed camps near the stations.
which (since most of the men were armed) were centers of
disturbance. Many sheds were fired, many strikers were
arrested and sentenced to terms of imprisonment.
In Queensland where, according to the Colonial Secretary of
the day, the strike had developed into an insurrection, an
act for the better preservation of the peace was
passed.
Law and Order Fines
This provided that within proclaimed areas
the carrying of firearms was permitted only on specified
conditions, and that any person attempting to disturb law
and order or suspected of acts of violence might be
arrested, held without bail, and sentenced to a fine of
£100 or imprisonment for not more than three
months.
Fortunately the official charged with the enforcement of
this act was tactful, and always succeeded in dispersing
the striker without bloodshed.
Strike Complete Failure
Throughout the eastern colonies the strike
was a complete failure, and left the men in unions
powerless and moneyless.
Not until 1904, when the Amalgamated Workers' Association
of Queensland (which included the shearers and other
bushworkers unions) joined with the Australian Workers'
Union, was a return to the membership of the early nineties
effected, and then action under the arbitration system that
had grown up was more generally appealed to.
Machine Age
The beginning of the sheep shearing
machines dates back to 1888 in Australia, though earlier
attempts were recorded from England. Like all innovations,
it had to face the antagonisms and prejudices of both
pastoralists and shearers, and, as a consequence headway
was retarded.
Fortunately some managers and owners who are more
progressive gave the machines a fair trial, and it was soon
demonstrated that less skill was needed by the users and
more, wool was won.
In time a number of sheds proved the superiority of the
machines, and in the early nineties three rival machines
were competing for favor.
In 1888, then Dunlop shed, in New South
Wales, completed the first full dress shearing while a mob
of striking shearers, disgruntled and angry, skulked in
their tents "on the other side of Jordan". On October 11, 3,723 sheep were
mechanically shorn by 81 non-union men.
The world record for blade shearing stands to the credit of
Jackie Howe, who on Monday, October 10. 1892, at Alice Downs, near Blackall, Queensland, shore 821 sheep in seven hours
40 minutes. Howe's average for the previous week was 259 per day, or 1,437 for the week.