The Birth of an Organising Union

The Birth of an
Organising Union
Celebrating 125 years of organising
transport workers in New South Wales
Mark Hearn

The Birth of an
Organising Union
Celebrating 125 years of organising
transport workers in New South Wales
Mark Hearn

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Author: Hearn, Mark, 1959-
Title:
The birth of an organising union / Mark Hearn.
ISBN:
9780646925639 (paperback)
Subjects: Trolly, Draymen and Carters’ Union--History.
Transport Workers’ Union of Australia. New South Wales
Branch--History.
Transport workers--Labor unions--New South Wales--History.
Labor unions--New South Wales--History.
Other Authors/Contributors:
Transport Workers’ Union of Australia. New South Wales
Branch, issuing body.
Dewey Number: 331.881138809944
Printed by: Novocastrian Print Management
Design: Southland Media Pty Ltd.
Published by the Transport Workers’ Union of New South Wales,
31 Cowper St Parramatta 2014
©Transport Workers’ Union of New South Wales, 2014

Foreword
In 2013 the Transport Workers’ Union celebrated 125 years of organising transport
workers in New South Wales. The Birth of an Organising Union has been produced
in recognition of that achievement.
The Trolly, Draymen and Carters’ Union was first formed in 1888. However
the young organisation was not able to survive the harsh tests of economic
depression, and hostility from employers and governments during the early
1890s.
The Birth of an Organising Union focuses on the union’s revival in 1901, a year
that marks the reorganisation of the union that became the modern Transport
Workers’ Union.
1901 also provides a vivid snapshot of the working lives and living conditions
faced by trollymen, draymen and carters and their families in the rough and
tumble conditions around Sydney’s Darling Harbour precinct, the area of West
Sydney, as it was then known, and where the union first organised its members.
1901 was also a time when Australia officially became a nation, and the labour
movement began to grow in both industrial and political strength, leading to
the world’s first Labor government in 1904, and the formation of other Labor
governments in New South Wales and the Commonwealth soon afterwards.
The Trolly, Draymen and Carters’ Union played a vital role in building this future.
Without the dedicated service and sacrifices of those workers, union delegates
and officials, the Transport Workers’ Union would never have been able to

develop as the powerful voice of transport workers in New South Wales and
across Australia.
The Birth of an Organising Union is a testimony to the brave struggles of the
workers who formed our union, and serves as a powerful reminder that new
generations of workers and unions are often called upon to renew the struggle
for achieving better wages and conditions for working people, and protecting our
hard-won gains.
The issues that inspired our forefathers to form this great union are the same
issues we face today: the fight for safety on the job, the right to work reasonable
hours to get fair wages and conditions.
The Birth of an Organising Union demonstrates why the union revived with such
force in 1901. The lessons that were learnt in those early formative years are with
us still: that the real strength of the Transport Workers’ Union is our members and
that we were, and always will be, an organising union.

Contents
‘A union was much needed’:
reviving the Trolly, Draymen and Carters’ Union in 1901................................................. 3
1888: First attempt to unionise.............................................................................................8
Darling Harbour in 1901:
the working world of the Trolly, Draymen and Carters’ Union.......................................11
Pyrmont Bridge: ‘a link of the utmost value’.....................................................................16
Trolly, Dray and Cart...............................................................................................................17
“United We Stand, Divided We Fall”:
creating the Trolly, Draymen and Carters’ Union Banner..............................................19
Not all work: the union’s fundraising concert..................................................................22
Australia in 1901......................................................................................................................23
Fighting for shorter working hours and fairer wages in 1901.......................................25
‘Another Labor Victory!’
The introduction of compulsory industrial arbitration..................................................29
A dangerous job:
the hazards of a deregulated workplace in 1901.............................................................33
‘The carriers are trying to combine’:
organising beyond Sydney....................................................................................................36
The controversial Billy Hughes............................................................................................38
A fitting tribute to a reborn union:
The eight hour day parade in 1901......................................................................................42
Sources and further reading............................................................................................... 48

2 The Birth of an Organising Union

‘A union was
much needed’:
reviving the
Trolly, Draymen
and Carters’
Union in 1901
3

On Saturday 2 February 1901, a
meeting of trollymen, draymen, and
carters was held at the Trades Hall in
Sussex Street, Sydney, ‘with the object
of establishing a union’.
The attendance was, according to a
newspaper report, ‘exceptionally large’.
Forming a union of drivers of ‘Sydney
and the suburbs’ was an idea whose
time had come. Over 500 drivers
signed up to join the new union.
The meeting was chaired by William
Morris Hughes, the energetic and
ambitious Labor member of the New
South Wales Parliament. Hughes
represented the seat of Lang, which
covered the working class districts
around western Sydney harbour, where
many of the union’s members lived and
worked.
Hughes observed that ‘during the past
few months Australia had experienced
unprecedented activity in labour
circles’, and he added that ‘such an
enthusiastic response as the men had
made was very flattering to those who
set the movement for a union on foot.’
The assembled men flattered
themselves by putting their faith in
one another. They voted to establish
‘a temporary management committee,
consisting of one representative from
each yard’, who would ‘carrying on the
initial business of the union.’
It was also decided that ‘for the first
three months of the union’s existence
no officers should be paid. The
entrance fee for joining the union was
to be one shilling, and the subscription
for membership was set at six pence
per week for the first three months.
The Trolly, Draymen and Carters’
Union would be firmly based in
the organisation of its rank and
file members, supported by the
broader labour movement, including
the members of Parliament who
encouraged the union’s formation.
‘A union among the class of workers
4 The Birth of an Organising Union

present was much needed,’ Sam
Smith, a Labor member of the NSW
Parliament told the assembled drivers.
‘He had frequently seen those men
working about the wharfs and streets
until 9 and 10 o’clock at night. They
then had, in many cases, to drive to
distant suburbs to stable their horses,
and it was often midnight before they
were free to go to their homes.’
The suburbs might indeed have seemed
distant to a tired carter, because at
midnight he had to walk home, perhaps
from Chippendale to Glebe, or even
Balmain. Some of these distances
may not seem far, but imagine walking
them after a long shift driving a dray in
Sydney’s narrow streets.
This was the world that Sam Smith
❝
The men present and
those they represented
were numerous enough
to form one of the
strongest combinations
in Sydney.
reminded the assembled workers of
in February 1901. Smith knew, he said,
that ‘men rose from their beds in the
very early hours to feed and groom
their horses.’ But he promised that
‘these extreme hours would be reduced
under union conditions, and when the
❞- Sam Smith
Reviving the Trolly, Draymen and Carters’ Union in 1901
5

Sydney Morning Herald,
11 February 1901
6 The Birth of an Organising Union

day’s work was shortened
the question of wages
could be considered.’
Smith declared that, ‘The
men present and those
they represented were
numerous enough to
form one of the strongest
combinations in Sydney,
and he appealed to them
to do so.’ They did not
need much persuading.
At a second meeting held
two weeks later, the union’s
membership doubled
to over 1,100, out of a Sydney road
transport workforce of approximately
3-3,500. At this meeting Billy Hughes
was elected president and Finley McInnes
as secretary. Subsequently in November
1901 Mick Connington was elected
secretary. Connington proved a capable
union official and industrial advocate and
he remained secretary until 1916.
A sense of excitement, of new
possibilities for organising unions and
better conditions for workers and their
families, was reflected at the meetings
held in February 1901. However as with
many other unions, the Trolly, Draymen
and Carters’ Union would find the early
years of organisation often difficult
and frustrating, as employers resisted
union demands and the new industrial
arbitration system responded slowly to
industrial claims.
Organising a union has never been easy.
Reviving the Trolly, Draymen and Carters’ Union in 1901
7

*
1888: First attempt to unionise
February 1901 was not the first time
that Sydney’s trollymen, draymen,
and carters had met to form a union.
They had done so with high hopes in
Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1907), Saturday 13 September 1890, page 12
STILL DRAGGING ALGNG.
Strike.
COAL SUPPLIES FAILING.
“The Trolly and
SILVER MINES SHUT DOWN.
Draymen’s Union
MANY THOUSANDS OCT OF EMPLOY.
... decided to place
themselves entirely
in the hands of the
Defence Committee,
and to strike at a
moment’s notice
EMPLOYERS
when called upon to
do so.”
The disastrous marit mo strike is still dragging
now along, and has fairly engulphed in its
meshes the whole of tint commerce, trade,
and labor of the Austi alian colonies. The
themselves
Trades and Labor leaders express
ss very anxious for a conference with the
Shipowners' and Employers' Union, but tho latter
aro of opinion that no ci'.icient basis can be arrived
at until th*y aro allowed to havo some freedom
shall not em
of action as to whom they shall or
ploy, and whether their busine.-s shall bu kept in
constant disruption through tho dictation of the
several unioas. To discuss and decide thia
point and to settle a number of vexed questions,
tho
ASSOCIATED SHIPOWNERS AND
mat in conference on tho afternoon of September
0 at t' o Chamber cf Commerce. There wero
present representatives of the Steamship Owners'
Associations of New South WalcB, Victoria, and
South Australia, tho Employers' Unions of New
South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and
Queensland, tho Pastoralists' Unions of this
colony and Victoria, the Associated Colliery
Owners of this colony, and various other kindred
Sydney Morning Herald,
associations wore represented. On tho motion of
Mr. Henry Hudson,
Union of New South Wales, seconded
11 September 1890
president of the Employers'
by Mr. W.
of the Steamship Owners'
chairman O, "Willis,
Association of Australasia, Mr. E. M. Young,
general manager of the Australian M'

of New South Wales and the other
Australian colonies.
The unions were demanding the right
to organise, and to represent their
members. The employers and the
government were determined to crush
them. They refused to recognise unions
as legitimate representatives of their
members.
Strike-breaking in
Sydney 1890
Scabs took the strikers’ jobs; the NSW
government defeated the strikes and
the unions. In September 1890 the Trolly
and Draymen’s Union’s members went
on strike in support of the shearers and
maritime workers, but were defeated,
the government using mounted troopers
to break-up union pickets.
By the early 1890s a severe economic
depression also hit the Australian
colonies, driving up to 25% of workers
into unemployment, and collapsing the
organisational strength of the recently
formed unions.
The crippling effects of the economic
depression lingered throughout the
1890s.
It was not until the turn
of the century, and as the
colonies federated to form the
Commonwealth of Australia in
1901, that economic conditions
also improved, and governments –
both state and federal – began to
acknowledge unions as legitimate
representatives of their members.
In 1890 the unions
were demanding
the right to
organise, and to
represent their
members. The
employers and the
government were
determined to
crush them.
1888: First attempt to unionise
9

10 The Birth of an Organising Union

Darling Harbour in 1901:
the working world of
the Trolly, Draymen and
Carters’ Union
11

The suburbs that folded around Darling
Harbour formed the centre of the
working world for the Trolly, Draymen
and Carters’ Union in 1901.
Darling Harbour was also a centre of
production and industrial conflict. It
was a rough realm of timber wharves
and wool sheds, tanneries and rail
yards.
❝ Living conditions
were poor:
often not much
better than the
horse stables
that were also a
feature of every
street.
❞
Darling Harbour was the working
harbour of Sydney. Barricades of masts
and churning funnels marked out the
columns of tethered ships butting up to
the wharves.
Between January and March 1901,
609,000 bags of wheat were received
at Darling Harbour, much of it
bound for the export market. On 30
November 1901, 7800 bales of wool
were manifested to arrive by rail.
Wheat and wool were just the big
ticket items of a rich trade in goods
and produce that poured into Darling
12 The Birth of an Organising Union

Harbour and then streamed out into
Sydney, carried away by drays and
carts and straining teams of horses.
The streets around Darling Harbour
were also packed with family homes.
Suburbs and workplaces were bound
close together; homes were thin
terraces and collapsing cottages,
many dating back to the early years of
colonial settlement.
Sussex Street was ‘a great artery of
business, and most residents of Sydney
wonder how its immense volume
of traffic is transacted in the room
allotted.’
Darling Harbour in 1901
13

Smokestack soot mingled with the
pungent reek of the tannery and the
horse manure scattered along Kent
and Sussex Streets. This is where trolly
and draymen worked, and where their
families lived.
The living conditions were poor: often
not much better than the horse stables
that were also a feature of every
street. The streets and lanes provided
the playgrounds for the children.
Plague Outbreak
A dramatic revelation of the poor
living conditions was provided by
the outbreak of that medieval terror,
bubonic plague, which suddenly struck
in the Rocks districts of Sydney in
1900, transmitted by nimble rats from
ship to the squalid shore of Darling
Harbour where it found a fertile
breeding ground.
A City Council inspection of the
14 The Birth of an Organising Union

Darling Harbour wharves in March 1901
found that ‘in no instance were any
precautions taken by the masters of
vessels to prevent rats getting ashore
along the hawsers.’
The inspectors also found that,
‘Steaming slowly past the jetties one
noticed many of them in a dilapidated
condition, the piles wholly or half eaten
away, as well as the pile sheathing
which does duty for a wall. Here was an
ideal retreat for rats.’
The plague outbreak’s first victim was
Arthur Payne, a local trollyman, who
luckily recovered. In all, 103 people died
in the outbreak, which persisted for
over a year.
A program of disinfection and
demolition of condemned properties
was still underway around the Rocks
and the Darling Harbour area in 1901.
Darling Harbour in 1901
15

Pyrmont Bridge at the
turn of the century
Pyrmont
Bridge:
‘a link of the
utmost value’
By 1901 the new Pyrmont Bridge spanning Darling Harbour was nearing completion.
Pyrmont Bridge was described at the time as ‘a link of the utmost value in the
chain of metropolitan intercommunications.’ It was a vital infrastructure component
of the redevelopment of Darling Harbour underway at the time, spurred by the
demolition of derelict buildings and wharves as a consequence of the plague
outbreak.
In June 1901 it was also announced that a new wheat shed, ‘capable of containing
one million three hundred thousand bushels of wheat, with proper landing
appliances’, would immediately be erected at Darling Island. It was a confirmation
of the importance of the Darling Harbour precinct to the state’s economy, and a
promise of future work for the draymen and carters who distributed the goods and
produce that were transmitted through Darling Harbour.
16 The Birth of an Organising Union

Trolly, Dray and Cart
The union established at the turn of the century intended to combine a disparate but
clearly identifiable workforce: workers whose employment was defined by driving
horse-drawn vehicles.
In 1901, a ‘trolly’ driven by a member of the union was a horse-drawn vehicle. A trolly
or a cart could be any number of horse-drawn vehicles with four wheels. A dray was
a flat-bed cart without sides. There were also lighter two-wheeled drays and small
vans.
During the Maritime Strike in September 1890 strike-breaking wool-owners
approached Circular Quay in Sydney to deliver their wool bales to the waiting ships.
Then, as a newspaper reported, ‘the trollies bearing the bales were surrounded by
unionists, and the heads of the horses turned the other way.’ The trolly referred
to here was a large, specialised wool trolly required to bear the load of a several
stacked wool bales.
Specialist drivers
As Mark Bray and Malcolm Rimmer note in their history of the TWU, Delivering the
Goods, many carters were necessarily specialists: ‘many drivers stuck to a single kind
of work because their vehicle had only one use.’
Carters often hauled only one commodity: they were meat carters and beer carters,
or furniture carters, for example. Many of these drivers were self-employed, coping
with the vagaries of maintaining teams and finding work, problems familiar to
modern owner-drivers. The breweries and large retail stores like Anthony Horderns
or David Jones employed their own drivers and maintained their own delivery carts
and horse teams.
Pyrmont Bridge: ‘a link of the utmost value’
17

18

“United We Stand,
Divided We Fall”:
creating the Trolly,
Draymen and
Carters’
Union Banner
19

Across 1901 the records reveal the
determination of the Trolly, Draymen
and Carters’ Union to fund and produce
a banner. Union banners provided a
powerful symbolic representation of
union identity, and the work performed
by unionists.
❝ The banner is a beautiful piece
of work from the establishment
of JJ Legg and Co, of 119
Clarence-street. It is of blue
silk, and 14ft by 12ft. On the
front of it there is a central
picture representing light and
heavy work as performed by the
members of the union.
❞
On Friday 4 October 1901 the banner
was ceremoniously unfurled at a
meeting at the Protestant Hall in
lower Castlereagh Street. This was a
working class district near the Belmore
Markets and Chinatown, which had
yet to move west to Dixon Street.
Lower Castlereagh Street had several
venues, including the Protestant
Hall, frequently used by the labour
movement and working class political
organisations.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported:
‘The banner is a beautiful piece of work
from the establishment of JJ Legg and
Co, of 119 Clarence Street. It is of blue
silk, and 14ft by 12ft. On the front of it
20 The Birth of an Organising Union

there is a central picture representing
light and heavy work as performed
by the members of the union. In it is
shown on one side a horse drawing
a load of flour in a waggon, and on
the other side a light van drawn by a
horse. The drivers of the two vehicles
are shaking hands in the centre.
Surrounding the picture are smaller
ones representing parcel delivery,
furniture-removing, light-load work,
and a heavy wool team. Underneath
is the motto, “United to Assist, not to
Crush”.’
The motto reflected the desire of
the union to work as co-operatively
as possible with employers and the
government of the day to improve the
wages and working conditions of its
members, resorting to industrial action
when necessary.
Union banners also celebrated the
vital contribution of their members
in the task of nation building. This
ambition had a particular focus in 1901:
on 1 January of that year the various
colonies had federated to form the
Commonwealth of Australia. So on the
reverse side of the banner, as brilliantly
decorative as the front, were two
pictures, as the Herald observed:
‘One representing city trade, and the
other the shipping trade, surmounted
by Australian flowers and the
Australian Coat of Arms. A wreath
bears the name of the union. The
embellishments are of gold, and are
connected at the bottom with the
motto, “United We Stand, Divided We
Fall.”’
By October 1901 the union had grown
to a membership of 1,300, more than
doubling the number who founded
the union only a few months earlier.
No wonder there were loud cheers to
greet the unfurling of the banner in the
Protestant Hall.
Creating the Trolly, Draymen and Carters’ Union Banner
21

Not all work:
the union’s fundraising concert
❝ It was also
reported that
‘the proceeds
resulting from
the concert are
to be devoted to
the purchase of
a banner for the
union.’
❞
The trollymen knew how to
throw a party. On 6 May 1901 the
union held a successful concert
at the New Masonic Hall,
Castlereagh Street, attended by
over one thousand people.
‘An excellent programme of
vocal and instrumental music,
step-dancing, and character
impersonsations was submitted,
and there was frequent and
hearty applause. Among those
who contributed items were Mr.
Tod Callaway and Mr. Howard
Chambers, who appeared by
permission of Mr. Rickards, and
Mr. John Fuller, of the Empire
Theatre.’
Fuller’s Empire Theatre was
nearby in Castlereagh street
and featured ‘vaudeville’
The Royal Standard, known as the
Empire Theatre in 1901, provided the
entertainers for the union’s banner
fundraising concert.
comedians, minstrel and variety
performers. It was also reported
that ‘the proceeds resulting from
the concert are to be devoted to the
purchase of a banner for the union.’
22
The Birth of an Organising Union

Australia in 1901
Population: 3,773,801
Federation: 1 January 1901
Prime Minister: Edmund Barton
New South Wales
Premier: John See
Population: 1,354,846
Workforce: 451,403 males,
113,396 females
Transport and Communication
workforce: 45,000
No. of union members in NSW: 30,000
Federation parade in Bridge Street, Sydney 1 January 1901
Australia in 1901
23

Eight Hours and Safe Rates
In 1901 the carters employed by the Sydney
retailing firm David Jones & Co. were compelled
to work an average 15 hours per day.
Today drivers are still compelled to drive long
and unsafe hours. That is why the TWU fought
a 20 year campaign to establish the Safe Rates
Remuneration Tribunal. The need for the Tribunal
can trace its footsteps back to, and beyond, 1888.
24 The Birth of an Organising Union

Fighting for shorter
working hours and
fairer wages in 1901
25

When the Trolly, Draymen and Carters’
Union was established in February
1901 it was decided that the hours of
work the men should perform would be
60 hours per week. The union rate of
wages was set at: for men driving one
horse, 40s per week; for men driving
two horses 45s per week, and 2s 6d
extra for each horse driven.
❝ For the carters of David
Jones & Co., ‘week in and
week out, the record is one
of incessant work. They
rarely see their families,
for the children are asleep
when they leave home in the
morning, and asleep when
they arrive home at night.’
❞
In 1901 working hours were a major
issue, with demands that carters be
brought under the terms of the NSW
Early Closing Act, which would have
the effect of reducing standard hours
of work. One meeting was told of ‘the
injustice that many men were labouring
under in being compelled to work from
80 to 100 hours per week.’
The carters employed by the Sydney
retailing firm David Jones & Co. were
compelled to work an average 15
hours per day. The People, a radical
working class newspaper of the period,
26 The Birth of an Organising Union

eported that for the carters of David
Jones & Co., ‘week in and week out,
the record is one of incessant work.
They rarely see their families, for the
children are asleep when they leave
home in the morning, and asleep when
they arrive home at night.’
The carters were also ‘forced to pay
6d. per week each into what is called a
‘parcel fund’ — a kind of insurance fund
to recoup the firm for parcels that go
astray in the process of delivery.’
People also noted that ‘the highest
wage paid by the firm is 37s. 6d per
week — one man who has been in their
employ for ten years is receiving that
amount — and the lowest 32s. 6d’ –
rates well below those demanded by
the union.
In August 1901 some progress towards
better wages was made at a conference
between the Trolly, Draymen and
Carters’ Union and the Master Carriers’
Association. The minimum wage for
one horse drivers was set at £2 (40s) a
week, and that for two horse drivers £2
5s., with overtime for all loads put on
after 5 p.m. to be paid for as from 6.30
p.m., with time-and-a-half for holidays
and Sundays to team men, and 8s. 6d.
a day for stable work.
On the question of working hours, the
union had less success; the conference
decided that the maximum number of
hours be sixty-six per week, more than
the sixty hour week that the union had
hoped to achieve. And as Bray and
Rimmer observed in their history of the
union, Delivering the Goods, the union
also found it difficult to compel the
employers to honour the agreement.
Employers would have to be forced to
honour industrial agreements: and that
meant bringing down the weight of the
law on the bosses.
Fighting for shorter working hours and fairer wages in 1901
27

28 The Birth of an Organising Union

‘Another Labor
Victory!’ The
introduction
of compulsory
industrial
arbitration
29

In December 1901 the labour movement
celebrated the passage through the
NSW Parliament of the Industrial
Arbitration Act, which compelled
employers to bargain with unions and
workers: ‘Another Labor Victory!’
The Sydney Worker, the newspaper of
the labour movement, declared that
‘The uncompromising attitude of the
N.S.W. Political Labor League’ had
forced the government to reinstate the
clause which gave preference to trade
unionists.
Unions hoped that
industrial arbitration
would resolve the
differences between
capital and labour.
Livingstone Hopkins,
‘The Labour Crisis’,
Bulletin, 16 August 1890
For the Worker, the reinstatement of
the clause reflected the success of the
Labor Party since its birth in 1891. In
that year, Labor won 35 seats in the
NSW Legislative Assembly. The unions
had established the Labor Party as a
consequence of their frustration with
the grim economic circumstances of
the early 1890s, and the aggressive
resistance to union campaigns for
better wages and conditions by
employers.
30 The Birth of an Organising Union

Since 1891 Labor had, according to the
Worker, proved itself ‘the pacemaker of
reform’, initiating a raft of legislation
to improve the condition of workers
and their families. Although Labor had
not been able to win enough seats to
govern, it held the balance of power
in Parliament, and demanded from
governments ‘support in return for
concessions.’
In 1901 the preference for unionists
clause allowed unions like the Trolly,
Draymen and Carters to function
as the effective representatives of
their members in industrial disputes
and cases brought before the NSW
Industrial Arbitration Court.
❝ Since 1891 Labor had,
according to the Worker,
proved itself ‘the pacemaker
of reform’, initiating a raft
of legislation to improve the
condition of workers and
their families.
❞
The introduction of the Act provided
a new basis for bargaining, although it
was not until 1904 that the union was
able to achieve its first industrial award
under the Act.
The introduction of compulsory industrial arbitration
31

TWU South Coast banner
32

A dangerous job:
the hazards of
a deregulated
workplace in 1901
33

The hazards of carting heavy loads on
the roads of Sydney and New South
Wales are not new. In January 1901 a
serious collision occurred between a
Glebe Point tram and a cart which left
the two carters injured.
❝ Overloading and poorly
tethered loads also caused
serious accidents, practices
that were the product of
tight deadlines and demands
to maximise profits.
❞
Perhaps the long, exhausting working
hours that the union campaigned to
reduce contributed to the accident,
which took place shortly before
midnight at the intersection of Bridge
Road and Glebe Point Road. The cart
was crossing the tramline when it was
struck ‘with considerable force’ by the
tram.
‘The cart was overturned, and Patrick
Hogan, living in Kent Street, Sydney,
and John Clune, living in Chester
Street, Camperdown, who were its
occupants at the time, were thrown
heavily to the roadway. Both men were
conveyed to the Prince Alfred Hospital.
Hogan was suffering from a very
severe scalp wound, and was admitted
34 The Birth of an Organising Union

to the institution; but Clune, after being
treated for cuts und bruises, was able
to proceed to his home.’
Overloading and poorly tethered
loads also caused serious accidents,
practices that were the product of tight
deadlines and demands to maximise
profits.
At Darling Harbour in December 1901,
a carter named Charles Trotter, of East
Street Redfern, was taking a load of
wool to Messrs John Bridge and Co’s
Darling Harbour stores when two of
the bales fell from the cart, striking
him. ‘Trotter was conveyed by the Civil
Ambulance to Sydney Hospital, where
he was admitted suffering from a
fracture of the left thigh.’
of Hunters Hill. Inquiring into the death,
a magistrates court was told that prior
to the accident Rhem was walking
about five yards behind his dray, which
contained two tons of coal.
In turning the corner of Church Street
into Drummoyne Street the horses
attached to the dray turned sharply
round the corner. There was a lamppost
on the edge of the kerb. Henry
Rhem was behind his cart at the time,
assisting his fellow driver to negotiate
the turn. Rehm ran up to the horses
with the evident intention of turning
the leader. He caught hold of the reins
with his right hand and put his left arm
round the lamp-post. He was crushed
between the lamp-post and the heavilyladen
dray.
Perhaps the most tragic of the
industrial accidents of 1901 involving
draymen and carters occurred in
October. Henry Rhem died as a result
of a dray accident in the Sydney suburb
Rhem died as a result of his internal
injuries several days later. He was 22
years old.
The hazards of a deregulated workplace in 1901
35

‘The carriers are trying to combine’:
organising beyond Sydney
After the disastrous economic collapse
of the 1890s, unionism was still in its
infancy in New South Wales in 1901.
So the Trolly, Draymen and Carters’
Union concentrated on establishing its
organisation in the industrial centre of
Sydney. Elsewhere across New South
Wales, carters and carriers sought to
establish their own local unions, which
over time came together to form the
modern Transport Workers’ Union.
Across rural New South Wales, carriers
played the role of the modern long
distance driver; sometimes working
their own business, sometimes
employed by others. But they often
faced the same problems of poor pay
and working conditions. These were the
grievances of the carriers of the NSW
south coast who moved to unionise in
February 1901:
36 The Birth of an Organising Union

‘The carriers are trying to combine.
They mean business too, for they have
called a meeting for the 23rd February
and every carrier in the district has
signed the requisition. The object of
the meeting is to combine and do away
with the starvation rates for which
they have been carrying so long - rates
which mean nothing better than poorly
fed families, and worse fed horses.’
The newspaper report noted that,
‘Some nine or ten years ago the
carriers of this district made a
similar effort to form a union but the
movement fell through with a nasty
thud. Its failure was due to that enemy
of all unions — the blackleg. The men
who might have stuck to their mates
through thick and thin were compelled
to give in because their mates deserted
the ship and went back to the old cut
throat rates.’ That disunity was often
an effect of the economic depression,
forcing desperate workers to take
whatever meagre wages were on offer.
The carriers of 1901 faced cost
pressures familiar to the modern
long distance owner-driver. ‘The
present rate of carriage is ridiculous.
A man with a team of eight horses,
which costs nothing under £100, will
travel sixty miles to the port and
sometimes further for 1s 6d to 2s 6d
a hundredweight - according to the
amount he owes the storekeeper. Out
of this he has to feed his horses and
feed and clothe himself and his family.
The result is, as we said before, poor
horses, and poor people.’
The newspaper also noted the
inspiration provided by the federation
of the Australian colonies into
one united nation in January.
‘The predominant word at the
Commonwealth Celebrations was
‘United,’ and for their own sakes we
hope the carriers will decide at their
meeting on the twenty-third to adopt
the term ‘United,’ as their watchword.
They have only themselves to blame
that they are getting low rates and the
remedy is in their own hands, let them
not be slow to take it.’
❝ Elsewhere
across New
South Wales,
carters and
carriers
sought to
establish their
own local
unions, which
over time
came together
to form the
modern
Transport
Workers’
Union.
❞
Organising beyond Sydney
37

The controversial
Billy Hughes
38

As the Labor member of the NSW
parliament for the western Sydney seat
of Lang in 1901, William Morris Hughes
was a logical choice to help establish
the Trolly, Draymen and Carters’ Union
by becoming its first president. Hughes
lifted the public profile of the young
union, and used his skills to help the
union in industrial negotiations and
deputations to government.
From the outset of his political career
in the 1890s, Hughes attracted
controversy. Billy Hughes was a
physically small man with a dynamic
personality; he had the gift of the gab,
able to argue a compelling case and
win people to his cause.
Not everyone was impressed with
Hughes. Harry Holland, a working class
agitator, published People, a radical
journal that regularly attacked Hughes
in 1901. People described Hughes as
a ‘fakir’, a magician who ‘tricked and
fooled’ workers with his devious words.
‘It is a pity that the Carters allowed
Hughes lifted the public profile of the
young union, and used his skills to help
the union in industrial negotiations and
deputations to government.
Facing page: a Claude Marquet cartoon from the
Australian Worker, 5 October 1916, depicting Billy
Hughes building the ‘case’ for Labor.
The controversial Billy Hughes
39

themselves to be manipulated by this
scab politician as they have done. In
due time they will recognise the error
they have made.’
Hughes’ career continued to flourish;
he successfully ran as the official Labor
Party candidate for the new federal
seat of West Sydney in March 1901, and
moved from state politics to the new
Commonwealth parliament, then based
in Melbourne.
Billy Hughes served as the
Commonwealth Attorney-General
in the Labor Government of Prime
Minister Andrew Fisher between 1910-
1913.
Conscription
In 1916, during the brutal conduct
of the First World War, Labor
Prime Minister Billy Hughes, who
had succeeded Andrew Fisher a
year earlier, decided to support
the introduction of conscription
for overseas military duty. The
labour movement was opposed to
conscription, believing that Australia’s
volunteer forces, and the work
performed by workers within Australia,
were sufficient sacrifices for the war
effort.
Hughes’ decision split the Labor Party
and the government. In September
1916 Hughes was expelled from the
Labor Party. On 4 October 1916 the
Trolly, Draymen and Carters’ Union
voted to expel Hughes. At the same
meeting Mick Connington tendered
his resignation as secretary, as did the
union’s organiser, J. D. Rudd.
Connington said that ‘he considered
it was his duty to support Mr. Hughes
in his campaign, and he could not
conscientiously reconcile that attitude
with his position as secretary of
a union which has voted against
conscription.’ The meeting however
passed a vote of confidence in
Connington, in appreciation of his
service to the union. As one newspaper
commented, ‘it is no exaggeration to
say that his loss will probably be felt
40 The Birth of an Organising Union

❝ It is no exaggeration
to say that his [Mick
Connington’s] loss will
probably be felt more
severely than the loss
of any other man in
Union circles.
❞
Happier times: Picnic Committee 1905.
Front row, second from left: Mick Connington
and second row centre Billy Hughes.
more severely than the loss of any other man in Union circles.’ In the space of
single meeting, the union had lost its long-standing leadership team.
Following the meeting, a number of Hughes’ supporters in the union demanded
a rank and file ballot to seek Hughes reinstatement as President. The result of
the ballot was close, reflecting the sharp divide in Australian society over the
conscription issue: 1345 for Mr. Hughes and 1471 against, a majority of 126.
The controversial Billy Hughes
41

A fitting tribute to a reborn union:
The eight hour day parade in 1901
42

43

The Trolly, Draymen and Carters’ Union
was a proud participant in the grand
Eight Hour Day Parade conducted
through the centre of Sydney on
Monday, 8 October 1901. Having first
unfurled its new banner only a few
days before, the parade provided an
opportunity to display the banner to
the people of Sydney.
It was reported that ‘the people of
the metropolis and suburbs turned
out in thousands’ to watch as ‘Labour
celebrated in befitting fashion the
anniversary of the concession of the
principle of eight-hours’ work, and
the function was in its general aspect
admittedly one of the most successful
and imposing that has been witnessed
by the Sydney public for years.’
It was estimated that between 14,000
and 15,000 unionists took part in the
procession. The crowd was simply too
large to accurately estimate: ‘spread
over such an extensive line of route
as that traversed by the numerous
trades, it is impossible to give even
an approximate idea of the numerical
strength of the men, women, and
children who thronged the different
thoroughfares, but the total must have
been very huge indeed.’
The 1901 parade was ‘the first eighthours
demonstration in New South
Wales under the aegis of the Australian
Commonwealth’, and ‘the unionists
turned out in numbers never before
excelled in the State’, both marching
and accompanied by a stream of drays
bearing large union banners.
‘The handsome banners of the unions,
the many-coloured badges worn by the
men who marched so briskly through
the streets, and the gaily caparisoned
horses presented an ever changing
picture which pleased even the artistic
taste.’
The reporter also noted that ‘in labour
all men are regarded as equal, so that
the man who represents labour either
in the State or the Federal Parliament
is expected to walk with the men.
44 The Birth of an Organising Union

And they did so. Mr. Watson [John
Christian Watson, who became the
first Labor Prime Minister of Australia
in 1904], member of the House of
Representatives, walked with his
former colleagues and co-workers in
the Typographical Society, Mr. S. Smith,
M.L.A., stepped along with his old
friends in the Seamen’s Union, whilst
Mr. Hughes, M.P., [accompanied] the
Trolly, Draymen, and Carters’ union, of
which he is president.’
The parade was a proud display of the
work performed by union members.
The Marble Workers ‘had a lorry on
which some men were engaged in
working a large block of stone. A brave
show was made by the Shipwrights,
and their banner was followed by
numerous models of yachts, sailing
boats, and a life-boat. The merry sound
of an anvil heralded the approach of
the Coachmakers’ Society.’
❝ The 1901 parade was ‘the first
eight-hours demonstration in New
South Wales under the aegis of
the Australian Commonwealth’,
and ‘the unionists turned out in
numbers never before excelled
in the State’, both marching and
accompanied by a stream of drays
bearing large union banners.
❞
‘The United Furniture Trade Union
contributed a most instructive display
in the shape of a stringy bark hut on
A fitting tribute to a reborn union
45

a lorry, with a work-man making
the rude tables and benches out of
saplings and slabs, which comprised
the furniture of a hut in the early
days. Surmounting the hut was the
legend “The furniture trade in 1801.”
What added to the realism of the
display was the fact that the hut
was carried on a waggon drawn by a
team of six bullocks, which the driver
handled with great ability by means
of his long whip.’ No doubt the driver
was a Carters’ union member.
❝ Then came the Trolly, Draymen, and
Carters’ Union, with the new banner
that was unfurled the previous
Friday evening in the Protestant Hall,
Castlereagh Street. The gold-trimmed
banner floated magnificently over the
brightly decorated dray and the team
of plumed horses.
❞
‘Then came the Trolly, Draymen, and
Carters’ Union, with the new banner
that was unfurled the previous
Friday evening in the Protestant Hall,
Castlereagh Street, by the Minister for
Works, Mr. E. W. O’Sullivan.’ The goldtrimmed
banner floated magnificently
over the brightly decorated dray and
the team of plumed horses.
It was clear from the reception of the
people, the press and government
authorities that the unions that had
been driven into defeat in the 1890s
46 The Birth of an Organising Union

❝ The Eight Hour
Day Parade
provided a fitting
acknowledgement
of the arrival of
the new union,
as the respected
organising union
of trolly drivers,
draymen and
carters.
❞
were welcomed in 1901 as legitimate
representatives of working people.
‘Passing the Public Works Department
where the Minister for Works and
several of his colleagues were
assembled, the Australian flag was
dipped, as the procession passed.
The incident was acknowledged with
rounds of cheers from members of
each union that passed. The flag on
the Town Hall was, on instructions from
the Mayor (Sir James Graham), flown
on the tower and was also dipped in
honour of the procession.’
In many respects the Eight Hour
Day Parade provided a fitting
acknowledgement of the arrival of the
new union, as the respected organising
union of trolly drivers, draymen and
carters.
Eight Hour Day Parade,
Sydney 1909. In the
early years of the
twentieth century
these parades attracted
wide support from the
general public.
A fitting tribute to a reborn union
47

Sources and further reading
A range of historical newspaper sources
were researched for this publication,
including the Sydney Morning Herald;
Worker (Sydney); Evening News; Sunday
Times; People; The Catholic Press;
Western Herald (Bourke); Barrier Miner;
Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers
Advocate; Bombala Times and Monaro
and Coast Districts General Advertiser.
Photograph sources: pp.5, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14,
15, 17, 23, 24, 26, 34 State Library of NSW;
p.39, National Library of Australia.
For further details of the establishment
of the Trolly, Draymen, and Carters’ Union
and its formative years see Mark Bray and
Malcolm Rimmer, Delivering the Goods, a
history of the NSW Transport Workers Union
1888-1986, Allen & Unwin Sydney 1987.
Note on spelling
The union was registered as the Trolly,
Draymen and Carters’ Union and all early
material, including the union’s banner,
uses this spelling. Later accounts have at
times referred to the Trolley, Draymen and
Carters’ Union. This book uses the spelling
as designated by the union’s founding
members in 1901.
About the author
Dr Mark Hearn has published a number
of books and articles in the historical
and contemporary analysis of work
and unions, including Working Lives,
A History of the Australian Railways
Union (NSW Branch), Hale & Iremonger
1990; One Big Union, a national history
of the Australian Workers Union,
1886-1994 (co-authored with Harry
Knowles), Cambridge University Press,
1996 and Working the Nation, Working
Life and Federation, 1890-1914, (coedited
with Greg Patmore), Pluto
Press 2001. He was the co-editor of
Rethinking Work: Time Space Discourse,
published by Cambridge University
Press 2006. During 2002-2005 he was
a sesquicentenary post-doctoral fellow
in Work and Organisational Studies
at the University of Sydney. He is
currently a lecturer in the Department of
Modern History and Politics, Macquarie
University. Dr Hearn is the co-editor of
the online workplace relations magazine
workSite and an associate editor of
Labour History.
48 The Birth of an Organising Union

The Transport Workers’ Union has a long and proud history in
New South Wales that stretches back for 125 years. The Trolly,
Draymen and Carters’ Union was first formed in 1888. The Birth
of an Organising Union focuses on the union’s revival in 1901, a
year that marks the reorganisation of the union that became
the modern Transport Workers’ Union.