Conflict on the Waterfront: Fremantle Dock Workers and 'New Unionism', 1889 to 1945

Hal Colebatch's controversial book Australia's Secret War is one recent example in a century of criticism, often very loosely based on fact, to which waterfront workers in Australia have been subjected. When not being maligned, waterside workers have often been ignored and their contributi...

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Main Author: Oliver, Bobbie
Format: Journal Article
Published: University of Western Australia 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/50555
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author Oliver, Bobbie
author_facet Oliver, Bobbie
author_sort Oliver, Bobbie
building Curtin Institutional Repository
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description Hal Colebatch's controversial book Australia's Secret War is one recent example in a century of criticism, often very loosely based on fact, to which waterfront workers in Australia have been subjected. When not being maligned, waterside workers have often been ignored and their contribution to Australia's economic, political, social and maritime history-including their sacrifices in wartime-remains largely unacknowledged. It is for this reason that Lew Hillier began his history of the Ship Painters and Dockers Union in Port Melbourne with the words, 'This is the story of a band of men-men who over a long period have been much maligned by some sections of the society in which we live'. This paper focuses on two such Fremantle unions, the Fremantle Lumpers' Union (hereafter Lumpers), formed in 1889, and the Coastal Dock, Rivers and Harbour Works Union (hereafter Dockies), which formed in 1911. Their members loaded and unloaded cargo and undertook related work on the Fremantle Harbour from the 1890s to the end of the Second World War.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-505552017-05-09T03:41:29Z Conflict on the Waterfront: Fremantle Dock Workers and 'New Unionism', 1889 to 1945 Oliver, Bobbie Hal Colebatch's controversial book Australia's Secret War is one recent example in a century of criticism, often very loosely based on fact, to which waterfront workers in Australia have been subjected. When not being maligned, waterside workers have often been ignored and their contribution to Australia's economic, political, social and maritime history-including their sacrifices in wartime-remains largely unacknowledged. It is for this reason that Lew Hillier began his history of the Ship Painters and Dockers Union in Port Melbourne with the words, 'This is the story of a band of men-men who over a long period have been much maligned by some sections of the society in which we live'. This paper focuses on two such Fremantle unions, the Fremantle Lumpers' Union (hereafter Lumpers), formed in 1889, and the Coastal Dock, Rivers and Harbour Works Union (hereafter Dockies), which formed in 1911. Their members loaded and unloaded cargo and undertook related work on the Fremantle Harbour from the 1890s to the end of the Second World War. 2016 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/50555 University of Western Australia restricted
spellingShingle Oliver, Bobbie
Conflict on the Waterfront: Fremantle Dock Workers and 'New Unionism', 1889 to 1945
title Conflict on the Waterfront: Fremantle Dock Workers and 'New Unionism', 1889 to 1945
title_full Conflict on the Waterfront: Fremantle Dock Workers and 'New Unionism', 1889 to 1945
title_fullStr Conflict on the Waterfront: Fremantle Dock Workers and 'New Unionism', 1889 to 1945
title_full_unstemmed Conflict on the Waterfront: Fremantle Dock Workers and 'New Unionism', 1889 to 1945
title_short Conflict on the Waterfront: Fremantle Dock Workers and 'New Unionism', 1889 to 1945
title_sort conflict on the waterfront: fremantle dock workers and 'new unionism', 1889 to 1945
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/50555