T he origins and memory of the 8-Hours

Movement in Melbourne.
Quite
recently on the 4th of September in Western Australia there was a proposed strike of workers in the
childcare industryi. In general, strikes are: Busy rallies and loud protests. These are all for the fight for
better conditions and fairer treatment. Its common to hear, solidarity forever being sung and to see
better wages & conditions boldly displayed on a protestors placard. Nurses strikes, Paramedics strikes,
Teachers strikes are all things that happened in recent for better treatment for employed peopleii.

In Australia, there is a tradition of workers fighting for better rights, treatment and a more equal way.
This is something that has continued to happen since the early days of Australia. Im working 9-5,
working hard to make a living as sung by Dolly Parton, resonates an early tradition that unionists, and,
workers have continued to strive for.

8 hours labour 8 hours recreation 8

hours rest iii is the simple philosophy
behind the 8-hour day movement; it
encapsulates a simple theory of how
people should live. In the Australian
setting, and, close to home in the
Victorian setting, this movement and
push was something that occurred in the
midst of young Victoria during the
Goldrush. This history of the 8-hour
movement is something that has the
tendency to be forgotten, and, not
remembered when thinking about early
workers rights in Australia. Even though
Labour day commemorates the 8-hour
movement, and is something that Trade Union banner reads: 8 hours labour 8 hours recreation 8 hours rest,
is celebrated. 1873. Credit: State Library of Victoria. Source: Trove

The 8-hour Movement happened in Australia has its birth in Melbourne in 1856, which in 1856 was the
capital of Victoria, and continues to be so. In Victoria there are there are plaques and statues that
commemorate the early movement. For example, the statue on Russell Street, and, the statue in Sturt
Street Ballarat are examples of commemoration of the 8-hour movement, and, what it has achieved for
Victoria and wider Australia. This illustrated essay will explore the cause, the origins and orchestration
of the 8-hour movement in Melbourne, and, how it has perpetuated into the 21st century.

What caused for the 8 hour movement?

What situations at the time caused for the movement in Melbourne?
The 8 hour movement began on the 18th of February, 1856. This was also during the Goldrush in regional
Victoria in towns such as Ballarat, Bendigo and Maryborough. There was a decline in workers rights and
liberties during the time of the goldrush and work in cities in the 1850s. In the building and the retail
industry in the late 1840s. Shops were open for 14 hours at a time and shop assistants were constantly
on call and did not have fixed meal breaks, it was common for shop assistants to work 10 hour days with
very small breaks. In England and Scotland, working long hours whilst being in the cool conditions was
more bearable in contrast to Australian conditions.iv So it was physically unbearable for workers in
Australia to work in these conditions.
Other freedoms that caused for workers We have come 16,000 miles to better our
distrust was the licencing disputes at the
Eureka Stockade. These mistreatments
conditions and not to act the mere part of
pioneered the rights of workers to be machinery; and it is neither right not just
questioned in Australia, and, allowed for that we should cross the trackless regions
uprisings of workers. Examples of
uprisings and pioneering of workers
of immensity between us and our
rights include the birth of The Early fatherland, to be rewarded with excessive
Closing Association in 1857, and, the 8- toil, a bare existence and a premature
hour movement in 1856.
grave - James Galloway, The Age, 31st
What did the 8 Hour Movement March 1856.
originate from?
The society that headed the 8-hour movement in Melbourne was the Operative Stonemasons Society.
This society was formed in November 1850, however due to a decline in membership it suspended
activity in 1851. This was because of the Goldrush pushed the union movement into the background. The
society was revived in February 1855.v.
On a global perspective, there were other events happening at the time the Industrial Revolution was
coming to its end in the United Kingdom, and, many
different things were happening for the working class
and for workers right in general, such as in New
Zealand, Samuel Parnell who established the 8-hour
day in New Zealand. At the time of the movement, in
Victoria, there was a surge in the discovery of gold in
Victoria. Towns like Ballarat, Bendigo, Castlemaine
and Maryborough are all examples of towns, which
received this insurgence of new migration, and, these
towns represent the initial phase of non-Aboriginal
settlement in Victoriavi. As with any migration, this
brought a plethora of new people from varying places
in the world. Historian Weston Bate argued that
Victoria was swamped by migrants and there was a
mix of foreigners that migrated to Australia during the
time of the goldrush. England, Ireland, China are
examplesvii. People tested their luck on the goldfields,
and people just packed up and left their jobs to head
to the goldfields. This work deteriorated because
people simply werent having as much luck as they
hoped for and wanted a more sustainable income.
Historian Helen Hughes argues that this idea of
testing your luck was so common that there was a
constant change in occupation for many peopleviii.
People shifted around depending on the working 8 Hours monument in Russell Street,
economy. Melbourne. Credit: Anne Holmes
All of these happenings in the world at the time allowed
for the migration of key figures in the 8 hour movement to come to Australia.
Where did the 8-hour movement in Australia take place?
Melbourne as a city was still developing, and, there was a need in the working economy for people to
construct the city. There were ample amounts of opportunity for people to gain employment within the
building and trade industry because of the superlative development of Melbourne infrastructure,
because of the boom in the goldrush there was a surge of money available for. Buildings like the Law
Quadrangle at the University of Melbourne; the Old Treasury buildings are examples of buildings that
were built in the early days of Melbourne. This relates to the 8-hour movement because with this
development there was a decline in the treatment of workers by their employers and contractors. The
employees were not treated fairly. It was common practice for 14-hour days, low wages and dangerous
conditions. The contractors were used to the conditions of Englandix, and assumed that the conditions in
Australia were the same. This was not the case. John Gration a stone mason from Collingwood, was one of
the early leaders of the Eight-Hour Movement believed that a reduction of the hours of labour would
be greatly beneficial to the trade, and also tend to improve social and moral conditionx, and Jacob Ford,
also a stone mason from Collingwood, who was also one of the early leaders noted it was impossible for
us to work more than eight hours per day under a burning hot sun in Australiaxi. This caused for the
development of the 8-hour movement in Melbourne.

Who headed the movement, and, how did they orchestrate it?
The leadership of the 8-hour movement comprised of English who were stonemasons and workers from
various building trades such as plasterers and joiners. James Stephens was the founder of the Victorian 8
hour movementxii.
There were meetings planned and advertised for initial discussions for the eight-hour movement.
James Stephens, an English man and James Galloway, also an English man made the first move for an
Eight-Hour day, they did this so they could set up a faction of the Operative Stonemasons Society.

Later, on the 5th of March, Melbourne and Collingwood branches of the society appointed a commission
to negotiate the Eight-Hour day with the newly formed Builders Association.
It was planned in this negotiation that the movement come to fruition on the 21st of Aprilxiii.

Advertisement in The Age on the 19th of February 1856, presents the initial proposals for meeting for
the changing of workers rights. Source: Trove
The meeting at Clarks Hotel in Collingwood (as advertised above) had the aim to discuss the reduction of
working hours for different trades, and, how to do so. Soon after, on the 26th of March 1856, a meeting
was held at the Belvedere Hotel to discuss ways of how this will happen.

On the 19th of April at a

meeting at the Queens
Theatre, it was discussed
with trade delegates that
represented masons,
plasterers, carpenters,
joiners, bricklayers, slate
and labourers for the new
and improved working
condition, two days later
on the 21st of April. It was
obvious
th
Advertisement in The Argus on the 25 of March 1856, asking for members of the building trades in that some
general about the eight hours question. Source: Trove of the trade
delegates
and employers who had agreed to decrease the hours to eight-hours per day, but, keep the wage the
same had no fulfilled their duty of the dealxiv. Only two employers, such as the employer for the Western
Market, and, the employer for the Houses of Parliament had fulfilled their end of the deal. At the
Melbourne University Law Quadrangle, the employer had not fulfilled his end of the deal, so this caused
for a strike and walked from the university into the town. After more negotiations, the deal was later
fulfilled and the men were paid accordingly.
As the Operative Stonemasons Society headed the movement, at the end they were the only society that
achieved the 8-hour day. Although it did not affect all societies, it pioneered the concept of the 8-hour day
for many different societies.

How has this continued since 1856?

It took until 1916 for the 8 Hour Day Act to be
passed in Victoria and New South Wales. The 8 hour
movement had affected many working class peoples
lives in Victoria, and, in Australia. The treatment of
workers in different occupation is something that is
still discussed today, and, it interesting to analyse
the topic of early workers rights in Australia to
compare how they are in the 21st century, and, how
the times have adapted for workers. There is a
perpetuation of this long standing tradition of
sticking up for the little guy that is still existent in
contemporary society. The 19th century was a
positive period of unionism and change for the
working class peoplexv. Many things happened for
the working class such as the 8 hours movement
being one of them in the Australian context. In
contemporary society, bodies such as the FairWork
commission in Australia protect workers, and,
ensure that they are receiving correct treatment in
the workplace, as well as other governmental bodies
such as Work Safe. In comparison, to how workers
rights were in 1855 compared to now, there is an Missing Penalty Rates poster in
obvious difference in how workers are treated in Reservoir. Source: Authors own image.
contemporary society. I the 21st century, there are
fairer working conditions for workers, but there is a lot more to do to gain equality and fairness. Equality
on the basis of gender, sexuality and age are all factors that need revival. Thanks to early union
movements, and, the continuing union movement workers have the rights they have today.
Endnotes:
i AAP, Childcare workers to stage biggest walk off ever over wage demands, West Australian, Title,
04/09/2017, title, <https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/childcare-workers-to-stage-biggest-walk-off-ever-over-
wage-demands-ng-b88588772z L >, 01/10/17
ii ABC News Online, Catholic School Teachers strike, ABC News, title, 06/09/17, para. 1, <

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-06/catholic-school-teachers-strike/7818036> 05/10/16 and AAP,

Victorian ambulance workers to strike for the first time in 36 years Sydney Morning Herald, title,
17/07/2009
iii Hugh, George, June 14, 1873., Trade Union banner reads: 8 hours labour 8 hours recreation 8 hours rest,

1873, State Library of Victoria, in Trove [online database], 09/10/17

iv Helen Hughes, The eight hour day and the development of the Labour movement in Victoria in the

eighteen-fifties, Historical Studies: Australia and New Zealend, 9/36 (1961) 398
v Ibid. 397.
vi Susan Lawrence Cheney, Uncertain migrants: the History of Archaeology of a Victorian Goldfield

Community., Australasian Historical Archaeology, 10/04 (1992) 36

vii Bate, W (Melbourne: McPhee Gribble/Penguin, 1988) 27 in Charles Fahey, Peopling the Victorian

Goldfields: From Boom to Bust, 1851-1901, Australian Economic Review, 50/2 (2010) 148
viii Helen Hughes, The eight hour day and the development of the Labour movement in Victoria in the

eighteen-fifties, Historical Studies: Australia and New Zealand, 9/36 (1961) 396
ix Helen Hughes, The eight hour day and the development of the Labour movement in Victoria in the

eighteen-fifties, Historical Studies: Australia and New Zealand, 9/36 (1961) 396 and Victorian Operative
Masons, Origin of the eight-hours movement in Victoria (Melbourne: Labor Call Print, 1912), 10.
x Correspondence [letter], 25/05/1856, para. 1 in Victorian Operative Masons, Origin of the eight-hours

movement in Victoria (Melbourne: Labor Call Print, Year), 10.

xi Victorian Operative Masons, Origin of the eight-hours movement in Victoria (Melbourne: Labor Call Print,

1912), 10.
xii Ibid. 4
xiii Helen Hughes, The eight hour day and the development of the Labour movement in Victoria in the

eighteen-fifties, Historical Studies: Australia and New Zealend, 9/36 (1961) 399
xiv Helen Hughes, The eight hour day and the development of the Labour movement in Victoria in the

eighteen-fifties, Historical Studies: Australia and New Zealend, 9/36 (1961) 399
xv Taylor, Kerry The Ambiguous Legacy of Samuel Duncan Parcell: The Eight Hour Day in New Zealend in

Kimber, Julie & Love, Peter (ed.) The Time of Their Lives: The Eight Hour Day and working life. (Melbourne:
Australian Society for the study of Labor History, 2007) 15-17
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Secondary Sources:

Fahey, Charles Peopling the Victorian Goldfields: From Boom to Bust, 1851-1901, Australian Economic
Review, 50/2 (2010) 148-161

Cheney, Susan Lawrence Uncertain Migrants: the History and Archaeology of a Victorian Goldfield
Community. Australasian Historical Archaeology, 10/04 (1992) 36-42

Hughes, Helen The eight hour day and the development of the Labour movement in Victoria in the eighteen-
fifties, Historical Studies: Australia and New Zealend, 9/36 (1961) 396-412

Kimber, Julie & Love, Peter (ed.) The Time of Their Lives: The Eight Hour Day and working life. (Melbourne:
Australian Society for the study of Labor History, 2007) 15-17

Images:

Hugh, George, June 14, 1873, Trade Union banner reads: 8 hours labour 8 hours recreation 8 hours rest, 1873,
State Library of Victoria, in Trove [online database], 09/10/17

Holmes, Anne, Workers dream 52/32/2, 2012, in Trove [online database], 15/2017.

Primary sources:
Victorian Operative Masons, Origin of the eight-hours movement in Victoria (Melbourne: Labor Call Print,
1912)

George Sparks, To Stonemasons wanted, Age, 19/02/1856, N/A, in Trove [online database], 05/08/17

Linacre, A, Notice to all building trades in general, Argus, 25/03/1856, page N/A, in Trove [online database],
17/09/17