The Labor Party in Inner Sydney Leichhardt
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The Labor Party in Inner Sydney Leichhardt: Flood's Estate - Part 1 Balmain: From Cooper Street to Waterview Street - Part 1 Leader 1 Leichhardt The Leichhardt Historical Historical Journal and Peter Reynolds Journal 22 Max Soiling 2000 extraordinarily energetic sec retary of the Annandale Contents Association. The Labor Party in Inner The founding editors were Sydney........................................ 3 representatives of the resident action groups - Alan Roberts Flood's Estate, from Annandale, Peter Rey Land & Building Develop nolds, Balmain and Max Sol ment in Leichhartdt South from 1830 - Part 1 .................... 11 ling, Glebe. The 20-page LHJ No. 1 reflected a range of local From Cooper Street to interests and concerns, and Waterview Street, thereafter subsequent issues Balmain - Part 1.. ..................... 55 came out annually (or there abouts). Subscribers could Michael Reynolds ................. .101 avail themselves of the set of Book Reviews ........................ 126 the first four issues for $2.60. From 1978 Peter became the Contents List LHJ 17-21 ....... 128 heart and soul of the LHJ. Ed iting and later typing all the Abbreviations ......................... 128 manuscripts submitted, he had Peter Reynolds photographs converted to Conversions ............................ 129 Leichhardt Historical Journal screened bromides, and then, The birth of the LHJ was a by after designing, laying-out and Cover product of three new resident pasting-up the LHJ, took it to See page 89. action groups, and a renewed the printer. He then hand de interest in historical studies at livered the LHJ to all schools Contributors & Reviewers Max Soiling is a solicitor. Robert the local level. Before 1971, (government and non govern Irving and Peter Reynolds are archi when the LHJ began, the ment) in Leichhardt municip tectural historians. streetscapes of Leichhardt ality as well as Fort Street municipality were regarded as High School. Acknowledgements old and unfashionable, and Funds to keep the LHJ a This publication has been assisted through the Community Grants Pro without a history worth writ float have been obtained, col gram of Leichhardt Council and by a ing about. The Balmain Asso lected and disbursed by Peter, donation from the Balmain Associ ciation ( 1965), Glebe Society whether it be subscription, by ation. Jennifer Bates read signifi (1969) and Annandale Associ grants or other funding. The cant parts of the text. Rebecca ation ( 1970) brought new life largest purchasers have been Reynolds helped with production. and energy to their respective Leichhardt Library and the Hon Editor Max Soiling suburbs. All sought to pre Balmain Association. serve the special character of Always run on a shoestring, ISSN 0155-4840 their district and urged an ex and only surviving by Peter's amination of the way they had unpaid work, the LHJ is affili © P Reynolds, A Roberts, M Soiling developed. ated with the RAHS. Since Published by Leichhardt Historical Everyone associated with 1993 the LHJ has received Journal Inc. This Journal is copy the LHJ worked in an honor some funds allocated to the right. Apart from any fair dealing for private study, research, criticism or ary capacity. It could be no RAHS by the NSW Heritage review, as permitted under the Copy other way. There was little Small Grants Program. Gener right Act, no part may be reproduced money available for this type ous donations from Leichhardt without permission. The Hon Editor i~ of endeavour. Council, the Balmain Associ not responsible for opinions express The first LHJ was typed by ation and the Glebe Society ed buy contributors or reviewers. Jeanette Knox and Deidre Pee have also been critical in cov Please address correspondence to 9 bles and laid out at the Annan ering costs associated with The Avenue, Balmain, 2041. dale home of Betty Mason, the publishing the LHJ. 2 Leichhardt Historical JournaL No. 22 The increased size of the In 1915, however, with broth Jack, b. 1922) Doreen May Journal since 1978 (when No. ers Frank and Oswin, John re Shirley (b. 1924), Peter Leg 7 cost $2.00 each), inclusion sponded to the call of King gett (b. 1931 ), and Colin of extra photographs and better and Country and crossed the James(b. 1934). quality paper to withstand seas. Debilitated by trench After a long period of medical library use has meant the cost fever and the effects of shell treatment, repatriation authori of issues has climbed to shock at Polygon Wood, he ties encouraged John to take up $12.00 in 1989 (No. 16) and to returned to Australia in 1918. basket-making and, with Joe $15.00 since 1993. Schaut, ran a small business Peter Legget Reynolds was John Thomas Reynolds which failed in the depression. born at Campsie on 31 Decem John settled in a new brick and Despite his ill-health, the ber 1931, in the depth of the tile cottage at 16 First Avenue, out-break of Word War II saw Depression. His great grand Campsie, after marrying 20-year John attempting to enlist. His parents, Michael and Maria old Doris Eileen Leggett on 4 persistence was rewarded with Reynolds, emigrated from December 1920 at St. Brigid's, an appointement as an orderly County Tipperary, Ireland in Marrickville. Born at Mount at Prince of Wales Hospital, the 1850s and farmed in the Street, North Sydney, Doris was Randwick. In time he became Berry district on the NSW the daughter of Benjamin and the hospital's telephone switch South Coast. Winifred Leggett. Benjamin board operator. Peter's father, John, labour was a cabinetmaker and French The physical and mental ed as a farm hand on the farms polisher and later became the legacies of the first war placed and also around Gerringong. man-of-all-work at W N Bull, this work beyond him. In a fit funeral directors. He made and of anger at the many refusals Michael Patrick and Ellen polished the coffins, attached for a Totally and Permanently Reynolds and Family in 1914 the fittings, donned a purple Incapacitated Pension (TPI), Back Row l to r: Francis, Steph creped top hat and tolled the bell he wrote another application in en, Henry Oswin (Os), John as he preceded the horse-drawn thick pencil on large sheets Thomas (Peters father). Middle hearse in the funeral procession. ofwhite butcher's paper. As a Row: Ellen (Peters grandmother, aged 47), Irene (standing), Mich Between 1922 and 1934, result, his war pension was in ael (Peters grandfather). Front John and Doris had four chil creased to a full TPI. Row: Charles Raphael (known as dren, John Leggett (known as Ray), George, and Mary. Continued on page 99 Labor Party In Inner Sydney 3 18 April 1891 to form a Leichhardt League "to work in harmony" with the Balmain LEL. 6 Within two months the Balmain and Leichhardt Leagues claimed 300 members. By June 1891 45 leagues had been established in NSW. The Labor Party in First Labor MPs The Labor Party's organisation was strongest in Inner Sydney south-western Sydney and they did very well in this region at the general elections on 17 June 1891. The Electoral Act provided for multi Max Soiling member constituencies for large electorates. Labor nominated four candidates at Balmain and West Sydney and won all four seats in bo~h 1 electorates. Labor won two of the four seats m For much of the second half of the nineteenth both Redfern and Newtown and one of the two century a feature of politics in NSW was its fluid seats at Glebe. Mort's Dock, the largest private nature. Some 27 ministries were formed between, employer in NSW, provided a strong industrial 1856 and 1891, making the av_erage life of eac~ base for Balmain's electoral success. The new of them little more than sixteen months. members for Balmain in 1891 were William Factions were formed around old friendships, Murphy, a ship's officer, James Johnston, a loyalties, obligations and shared interests and Mort's Dock boilermaker, Edward Darnley, a values and the strength of each faction depended plasterer and George Clark, seaman and journalist on its and on the degree of its cohesion. The ~ize who excelled as a temperance organiser. 7 All urban, mercantile, trading and professional men four were born in England. In 1891 the new comprised 50-60% of membership of the NSW member for Glebe, compositor Tom Houghton, Legislative Assembly between 1856 and 1890; was an important progenitor of the Labor Party. members drawn from banking, commerce, the The TLC's first full-time secretary, he was on professions, journalism, law and medicin; always the sub-committee that drafted the rules and outnumbered the squatters and farmers. organisational plan of the LEL's. After l?sing as a Protectionist Labor candidate for Glebe m 1894, The Labor Electoral Leagues Houghton became the proprietor of the Australian The industrial structure of Sydney experienced Workman from 1894 to 1897.8 rapid growth in the 1880s but the so-called long Labor returned 3 5 members to the Legislative boom came to an end about 1889 followed by a Assembly in 1891 which housed 141 members major confrontation between employers and trade altogether, a remarkable ~chie".e~ent for a party unions. The unions demand that employment be conducting its first campaign w1thm three months restricted to their members put them on a collision of its foundation. 9 course with employers who insisted on their ri~ht to choose their own labour. In Sydney pohce Divisions in the Branches and troops protected the strike-breake:s "".ho The Labor Party had an electoral base of working defeated the maritime unions in 1890. This stnke class voters and blue-collar membership but loss demonstrated to the unions their inability to make of early branch records precludes a more precise gains solely by industrial action.