The Birth of an Organising Union

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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
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Page 4 and 5: National Library of Australia Catal
Page 6 and 7: develop as the powerful voice of tr
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Page 10 and 11: On Saturday 2 February 1901, a meet
Page 12 and 13: Sydney Morning Herald, 11 February
Page 14 and 15: * 1888: First attempt to unionise F
Page 18 and 19: The suburbs that folded around Darl
Page 20 and 21: Smokestack soot mingled with the pu
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Page 26 and 27: Across 1901 the records reveal the
Page 28 and 29: Not all work: the union’s fundrai
Page 30 and 31: Eight Hours and Safe Rates In 1901
Page 32 and 33: When the Trolly, Draymen and Carter
Page 36 and 37: In December 1901 the labour movemen
Page 38 and 39: TWU South Coast banner 32
Page 40 and 41: The hazards of carting heavy loads
Page 42 and 43: ‘The carriers are trying to combi
Page 44 and 45: The controversial Billy Hughes 38
Page 46 and 47: themselves to be manipulated by thi
Page 48 and 49: A fitting tribute to a reborn union
Page 50 and 51: The Trolly, Draymen and Carters’
Page 52 and 53: a lorry, with a work-man making the
Page 54: Sources and further reading A range

The Birth of an Organising Union

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