University of Wollongong Research Online Faculty of Business - Economics Working Papers Faculty of Business 1997 Colonial forms of labour organisation in nineteenth century Australia Ray Markey University of Wollongong Recommended Citation Markey, Ray, Colonial forms of labour organisation in nineteenth century Australia, Department of Economics, University of Wollongong, Working Paper 97-6, 1997, 36. http://ro.uow.edu.au/commwkpapers/257 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library:
[email protected] University of Wollongong DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS WORKING PAPER SERIES 1997 COLONIAL FORMS OF LABOUR ORGANISATION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY AUSTRALIA Ray Markey COLONIAL FORMS OF LABOUR ORGANISATION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY A u s t r a l ia Ray Markey Department of Economics University of Wollongong Coordinated by Associate Professors C. Harvie & M.M. Metwally Working Paper Production & Administration: Robert Hood Department of Economics, University of Wollongong Northfields Avenue, Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia Department of Economics University of Wollongong Working Paper Series WP 97-6 ISSN 1321-9774 ISBN 0 86418 510 3 ABSTRACT Australian unionism built upon strong foundations transported from Britain. Subsequently it grew beyond this base in scope and form. By 1890 the level of unionisation of the colonial workforce exceeded that in the mother country. This was mainly due to the upsurge of new unionism in the late 1880s. Although there were many parallels with the new unionism of Britain, the colonial variant was more extensive, preceded the British version and demonstrated its distinctive characteristics, such as a national level of bureaucracy, earlier.