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P. 9

slightest pretext, and  12 (the
                                                                                        St  Helena  12)  sentenced  to  3
                                                                                        years by Judge George Harding
                                                                                        in  Rockhampton  on  the  catch-
                                                                                        all charge of conspiracy.




















                                                                                            Judge George Harding
                                                                                           The  strike  was  called  off  in
                                                                                        June,  another  followed  with
                                                                                        no better success in 1894, but
                                                                                        a  revolution  did  indeed  occur.
                                                                                        The strike propelled labour into
                                                                                        politics, and in 1899 Anderson
                                                                                        (Andrew)  Dawson  formed  the
                                                                                        world’s first Labor government
                                                                                        in  Queensland,  if  only  for  a
                                                                                        week.
                                                                                           In  1904  John  Watson  be-
                                                                                        came Australia’s and the world’s
                                                                                        first Labor Prime Minister.
                                                                                           My full article is in issue 20 of
                                                                                        History  Queensland  Magazine
                                                                                        (Boolarong press Brisbane).

                       Unionist prisoners sentenced at Rockhampton, Qld., May 1891.
            Back row: (Left to Right) : H.C. Smith-Barry; W. Fathergill (later Chairman of the Barcaldine
               Shire Council), A Forrester, J.A.Stuart (aka the poet “Curlew”),
            Second back row: (L. to R.): G. Taylor; (later Speaker of the West Australian Legislative Coun-
               cil), P. F. Griffin;  E. H. Murphy;  H. O. Blackwell, Third back row: (L. to R.): A. J. Brown; R.
               Prince, W. P. Bennett; D. Murphy
            Front row: William Hamilton (later President of the Queensland Legislative Council).



                                                                                           Author, Anthony Hammell










                                Police evict shearers Hughenden Qld., 1891.
        by pay well above going rates,   stockpiled rifles. Incidents such   down, telegraph lines cut, large
        whom unionists tried to convert   as the ‘Clermont riot’ occurred   grass  fires  lit,  and  scabs  or
        through ‘moral persuasion’.   and unionists arrested.   blacklegs and wool wagons pro-
          The  Queensland  govern-   Unionists  were  dispersed   tected by armed troops.
        ment sent 2000 soldiers and po-  at the point of the bayonet or   Henry  Lawson  wrote  ‘Free-
        lice,  including  the  ‘specials’  to   sword.  The  Eureka  flag  was   dom on the Wallaby’ in support   The Tree of Knowledge, April
        hotspots.  The  unionists drilled   prominently displayed in some   of the shearers.  Altogether 245   2000 before it was poisoned by
        with sticks in military style and   camps,  five  wool  sheds  burnt   unionists  were  jailed  on  the   unknown vandals.

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