tiabunna's photos with the keyword: Barcaldine

Following on from my previous documentation about the 1891 Shearers' strike and its unlikely setting in the little township of Barcaldine. The shearers met at the railway station and had their meetings under the shade of the nearby "Tree of Knowledge". A short while after the arrest of the Shearers' Union leaders, the other shearers gathered and formed the Queensland Labour Party (see PiPs 1,2) which became the start of the Australian Labor Party (the current national government in Australia). In 2006 someone poisoned the venerable "Tree of Knowledge" and the Queensland Government later had its remains treated with preservative, also erecting the large monumental structure over the top (see also PiP 3). The bench is in the background of the main image and in PiP 1. HBM, everyone.

This statue is holding the remains of a Eureka Flag (since the 1853 miners' uprising at Eureka the "go to" flag for protests in Australia - 1st PiP). Forgotten by many, the second largest uprising in Australia was, of all places, set in the little town of Barcaldine in 1891, when the shearers formed a union and refused to take pay cuts imposed by the large pastoralists. There were opposing marches through towns by shearers and the Queensland militia, some wool sheds were burned, and finally the pastoralist-led Queensland government had the strike leaders arrested (see PiPs) while scab labourers were imported from southern states. You can read more about it here, but maybe faster to listen to this song which tells the story. Wishing everyone a Happy Fence Friday and a good weekend.