Backward Glance - Celebrating the eight hour day

On Monday May 7, Queensland commemorates Labour Day with a public holiday.

Labour Day is an annual public holiday which celebrates the victory for workers in the mid-late 19th century, when they gained an eight-hour working day.

The argument for an eight-hour day was based on the need for each person to have eight hours labour, eight hours recreation and eight hours rest each day.

In the early 19th century, most labourers worked 10 or 12 hour days for six days each week.

The 1850s brought a strong push for better conditions beginning in 1855 in Sydney.

On April 21, 1856 in Melbourne, the stonemasons staged a well-organised protest.

They downed tools and walked to Parliament House with other members of the building trade.

Their fight was for an eight-hour day, effectively a 48-hour week to replace the 60-hour week.

The government agreed to an eight-hour day for workers employed on public works, with no loss of pay.

Tinsmiths, boot makers, tailors, metal workers and stonemasons were amongst many workers’ groups that protested and fought for better working conditions across the country.

Over the next two decades, one by one, the states brought in the eight-hour-day, although the working week was still officially six days until 1948 when it was changed to five days.

Many working conditions were harsh and demanding, and women were paid a lot less than men.

Labour Day is always recognised on a Monday, creating a long weekend when marches remind us of the workers’ achievements and their contribution to the wellbeing of their communities.

These hard fought victories led to Australia having a progressive labour environment, but equality for women took some time to emerge in the work force.

The ban on employment of married women in the Commonwealth Government was abolished by Australia’s Prime Minister Harold Holt on November 18, 1966.

Prior to this, when a woman married she had to resign from her position.

William Whalley and his father arrived from England in 1884, they then walked to Nambour from Brisbane.

The pioneering and industrious Whalley family is well known amongst the early residents in Nambour.

William and his father made a successful application for land and were granted acreage which they cleared by hand and built a humpy.

William did not like working on the farm so he branched out on his own.

He started work at a Rosemount sawmill for 5 shillings (50 cents) per week.

He then moved to Brisbane and became an apprentice plumber at Watsons, a well-known plumbing business.

William completed his apprenticeship and after a few years in the Brisbane plumbing industry he came back to Nambour where he established a plumbing business in 1896.

He was the only qualified plumber between Gympie and Brisbane.

Due to his industrious nature, William’s business gradually expanded to include a general store where he employed many local workers.

Later his sons Les, Frank and James joined the business.

The coming of the motor vehicle began a new era for Whalleys when they were granted the first Ford motor dealership in the region.

Motor mechanics were needed to keep the cars and trucks in good working order, so new jobs were created.

In Currie Street, Nambour, an inscription above one of the buildings reads “Whalley Chambers" which serves as a reminder of business beginnings in Nambour.

Sometimes, mistakes happen at work and one such incident many years ago, made the local community laugh.

Prior to motor vehicles, local government councillors worked on their farms or businesses and then rode their horses to meetings – generally held on the full moon so they could see their way home at night.

Prior to the shires dividing in the early 1900s most of the Sunshine Coast local government area was part of the Caboolture Divisional Board.

After a long day’s work and tired after the council meeting, farmer Cr McAndrew gave his horse “his head” to take him home on a wet night.

Cr McAndrew likely fell asleep, but the horse was still plodding along somewhere out near Woodford when he realised where he was.

In the darkness, Cr McAndrew had mistakenly taken the wrong horse, owned by another Councillor who lived at Woodford.

The horse was taking him to where it was stabled, nowhere near the Pumicestone Passage region where Cr McAndrew had his farm.

In 1910, Frank Wimmer established a cordial factory which employed local workers in Nambour.

During the early 1960s Wimmers Cordials was located near the site of the current council chambers building in Bury Street.

Later the Wimmers cordial factory moved to Jack Wimmer’s Cooroy factory outlet.

The well-known soft drink brand, Wimmers, can still be found for sale in supermarkets’ and food outlets throughout Australia.

The worldwide depression in the 1920s and early 1930s produced a major economic down turn.

The timber and sawmilling industries were among the most affected in this region.

Many workers were laid off and felt the hardship of unemployment.

Where possible, the mills kept their assets and reopened once the Great Depression lifted.

People did what they could to gain work during this time, some gathered bladey grass to make horse collars.

Jack Cowen from Conondale was apprenticed at 14 in 1933 to learn the horse collar trade.

He received one shilling (10 cents) per week and at the end of his apprenticeship, after five years, he received one pound ($2) per week.

A master of his trade, he averaged making three collars in two days from soaked leather stuffed with bladey grass and fine stitched.

He passed this early skill onto other workers in the region.

Another long standing business which employed many people was the Nambour Chronicle, published for the first time on July 31, 1903.

The first Chronicle was produced by its hard-working proprietor and Editor Luke Wilkinson.

As the region grew, so did the Chronicle and also the number of staff.

The paper had been printed in a small weather board office in Currie Street and later moved further north along the street as business expanded.

The last issue of the Chronicle was published on September 1, 1983.

Thanks to Sunshine Coast Council’s Heritage Library Officers for the words and Picture Sunshine Coast for the images.

Image Caption

Hero – Harvested pineapples being transported by a modified horse-drawn slide, 1905.

Image 1 - George and Jack Best working at first cattle dip in Maroochy District near Yandina, ca 1900.

Image 2 - Albert Foster's Sawmill at Cooloolabin, ca 1937. Albert J. Foster and his sons began assembling the sawmill in May 1934 and by 1938 some seventeen men were employed.

Image 3- Syruping section at the Buderim Ginger Factory, Burnett Street, Buderim, 1968.

Image 4 - Herbert Warren with the automatic bottle washing machine in Frank Wimmer's Cordial Factory, Nambour, ca 1925.

Image 5 - Employees in the shoe department of Whalley's Chambers, Currie Street, Nambour, March 1931 Photograph taken after the store was vandalized by thieves.

Image 6 - George Porter in the driver’s seat of his cane loader, Nambour, ca 1955.

Image 7 - Cane cutters stripping cane on the Garrett family farm, Bennett Road, Bli Bli, September 1957.

Image 8 - Landsborough Shire Council workers digging trenches for pipes along Queen Street to provide the first reticulated water supply to Caloundra, ca 1965.

Image 9 - Students and teacher J.T. Wilson in their classroom at Woombye School, 1910.

Image 10 - Railway workers employed to build and repair the last section of the railway line over the Range between Eumundi and Cooroy, ca 1890.

Image 11 - Gang at work dismantling the Buderim Tramline, 1936. The eight mile Palmwoods to Buderim line was built in 1914 and officially opened on 18 June 1915. The tramline closed in August 1935 and dismantled in May 1936.

Image 12 - Mandarins being picked and packed on Nelson's orchard, Buderim, ca 1925.