Port Adelaide - Industrial Relations
Dunn and Co's Mill
Also see Port Adelaide - Buildings
An article on Messrs John Dunn and Company's new mill is in the Register,
3 January 1867, page 3f,
while a summary of buildings erected or commenced during 1866 in the Port appears
on
15 January 1867, page 3c; also see
20 September 1886, page 7c for a report on Dunn's new flour mill.
A "Disturbance at the Port" is in the Register,
11 September 1867, page 2e:
-
... Handbills were circulated amongst the labouring classes stating that...
an effigy would be exhibited at the Peninsula Bridge and afterwards burned.
[It] was supposed to represent Mr John Dunn, junior, [who] had given notice
to his employees of a reduction of their wages...
(Also see Register, 16 and 23 September 1867, pages 2e.)
The mill was razed to the ground in November 1867 (see Register
of 26 November, page 2f) -
".... A very strong feeling prevails... that it was the work of an incendiary..." -
A report of the fire appears on
26 November 1867, page 3c,
while the reopening of the mill is described on
29 February 1868, page 2g.
It was again destroyed by fire in 1887 - see Register,
24 March 1887, page 6g and
6 April 1887, page 7h for the opening of a new mill.
A sketch is in Frearson's Weekly,
13 November 1880, page 563.
A further fire is reported in the Register,
3 January 1920, page 7e.
John Dunn, junior's, obituary is in the Register,
8 February 1892, page 6d.
An Essay - A Burning in Effigy
John Dunn arrived in South Australia in the Lysander in 1840 with his wife and children and settled at Hay Valley near Nairne where he built a flour mill; other ventures followed in the course of time and by mid-1866 his son, John Dunn, junior, was managing a newly-erected mill at Port Adelaide. In a munificent gesture in January 1867 he invited the whole of the firm's colonial employees to a dinner "with the double purpose of promoting good feelings between employer and employee" and to "afford the hands, many of whom are ""true blue Australians"", an opportunity of visiting the seaport of the colony."
These fine sentiments were abrogated when, in September 1867, John Dunn informed his Port Adelaide employees that it was his intention to reduce their wages and "it was further asserted that he had endeavoured to persuade other employers at the Port to adopt the same course."
Within a few days handbills were being circulated among the labouring class advising that an effigy, supposedly representing John Dunn, was to be exhibited at the Peninsula Bridge and, at the nominated time, duly burned with appropriate ceremony and incantations against his firm's miserly capitalistic edict. However, the proposed conflagration was snuffed out before a match could be applied to the effigy of the beleaguered employer; the police moved swiftly and took possession of it.
This act added fuel to the incipient anger of the workers for they marched in force to Mr Dunn's residence where, in an act of contrition, he attempted to appease them with an account of the economic woes of his company and the absolute necessity for the proposed wage cuts. During his plea "mud and stones were thrown by some cowardly fellows" at his person, while kerosine and gunpowder were propelled into his house.
After the angry mob had withdrawn to plot and plan future incursions a local Council meeting was called, when the Town Clerk was instructed to write to the Commissioner of Police expressing regret that the ringleaders of the near riot had not been arrested.
An uneasy peace existed between labour and capital until the morning of Saturday, 23 November 1867, when Portonians were awakened by an acrid smell of smoke in their nostrils - Dunn's Mill was a blazing inferno with no prospect of it being brought under control. The embers of the gutted building remained smouldering over the weekend, while the outcome of an inquest held on Monday, 25 November was inconclusive, but there was "a very strong feeling... that it was the work of an incendiary".
The implication of this open verdict is that a disgruntled employee was the culprit; if such is the case it was an act of a deranged man because the employees' "reduced" wages then became non-existent and remained in that parlous state until the mill was rebuilt and reopened in February 1868.
Miscellany
"Boxing Day at Port Adelaide" is in the Chronicle, 1 January 1859, page 5c.
"Labour at Port Adelaide" is in the Register,
21 February 1859, page 3g:
-
The stone masons of Port Adelaide, Alberton and Queenstown have resolved to
mortgage their cottages to their respective building societies, to raise
money to defray their expenses to Melbourne to obtain employment at the railway
works at any wages rather than see their families in want.
Information on meetings to consider "early closing" is in the Register,
5, 10 and 17 December 1862, pages 2h, 2g and 2f,
8 January 1863, page 3c,
23 February 1863, page 3e.
Information on the agitation for early closing is in the Register,
3 and 10 June 1889, pages 5b and 5b,
6 and 17 July 1889, pages 6a and 7h,
"Unions and the Port" on
29 July 1889, page 7e.
Also see South Australia - Social
Matters - Early Closing
"Unemployed at Port Adelaide" is in the Register,
10 August 1867, page 2d,
"Amusement for the Unemployed" on
15 August 1903, page 4h.
A meeting to form a working men's union is reported in the Register,
15 and 22 September 1865, pages 2h and 2g,
20 August 1872, page 6d; also see
20 and 23 September 1872, pages 5a and 5d,
Express,
20 August 1873, page 3d,
21 August 1875, page 3f,
Register,
20 August 1875, page 5e,
21 August 1876, page 6a,
21 and 22 August 1877, pages 6e and 5a,
1 September 1877, pages 4d and 7,
1 September 1877, page 5g:
-
The celebration which took place... is a record of one great triumph... and
if working men are true to the important and influential position they occupy
in this colony the eight hours victory will only be the stepping stone to
nobler achievements in the future.
(Also see Register,
20 August 1878, page 6a,
21 August 1883, page 7a,
Express,
2 September 1884, page 3g.
For an account of its silver jubilee celebrations see Register,
19 August 1897, page 6c.)
Similarly, seamen met for the same purpose - see Register,
25 September 1872, page 3f.
An editorial on "The Seamen's Union and Seamen's Rights" appears on
7 March 1881, page 4f-7c; also see
8 and 11 March 1881, pages 7a and 6g;
a history of the Union is reported on
24 October 1884, page 5h.
A working-men's demonstration is reported in the Register,
20 August 1873, page 5e,
21 August 1883, page 7a; also see
21 August 1874, page 5f,
20 August 1878, page 6a (in association with the Seamen's' Union),
8 August 1882, page 4g (report on 10th anniversary) and
8 August 1882 (supp.), page 1b (picnic).
A meeting called to consider the subject of wages appears on
26 October 1882, page 6c.
Information on the Licensed Carters' Association is in the Register,
5 February 1876, page 5c,
14 April 1876, pages 5a-7a,
Express,
3 February 1877, page 2f,
9 January 1878, page 2d.
Register,
29 December 1883, page 6e.
"The Port Road Carters and Their Union" is in the Express,
18 and 20 January 1890, pages 3e and 2b-3g.
"Carters at Port Adelaide" is in the Register,
3 March 1885, page 5c,
30 December 1885, page 7d,
5 and 29 December 1887, pages 3f and 6g,
3, 5 and 8 June 1889, pages 5a, 5b and 7h,
18, 20 and 22 January 1890, pages 6b, 5b-6g and 7f,
26 February 1890, page 6c.
The inaugural meeting of the Amalgamated Engineers Society (Port Adelaide
Branch) is reported in the Register,
7 April 1877, page 6f,
21 August 1877, page 6e.
"Mr Bundey's Address to Working Men" is in the Register,
1 September 1877, page 4d.
A Port Adelaide Working Men's Association picnic is reported in the Register,
7 August 1880, page 6c; also see
Express,
8 August 1882, page 2f,
15 January 1890, page 5e,
19 March 1890, page 6e,
23 August 1893, page 2f.
"25 Years of the Working Men's Association" in the Register,
19 August 1897, page 6c,
Express,
20 August 1897, page 3f.
"The Dockyard Lockout" is in the Express,
25, 26 and 27 April 1881, pages 3c, 3d and 3b,
18 May 1881, page 3a.
The reduction of wages at the government dockyard is the subject of debate
in the Register,
19, 21, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 April 1881, pages 6g, 7e, 4g, 5a, 6c, 7c, 4e-5c-7a-1a
(supp.),
2, 3, 9, 17, 18, 19 and 23 May 1881, pages 5a-6b-e, 5b. 5c, 4g, 3b (supp.),
7e and 5c.
The prosecution of 13 masons' labourers under the Masters and Servants Act
for absenting themselves from service is reported in the Register,
17 August 1882, page 4f; also see
23 August 1882 (supp.), page 2a.
A Masters And Servants Act was still on the statute books in August 1882 when 13 masons' labourers, employed on a daily basis by Messrs Robin and Hack at Port Adelaide, were refused an increase in wages and, accordingly, decided to withdraw their labour by walking off the building site. Their employers took umbrage and sought legal advice and, in due course, charged them under the provisions of the Act with 'unlawfully absenting themselves from their service'. According to a report of the trial the magistrate reached a strange conclusion when he contended that the alleged offenders were duty bound under the provisions of the Act to give a day's notice before leaving their master's employ. His decision was to fine each man 'two day's and one hour's pay'!
A few days after the Court's decree was made known an irate carpenter, and no doubt a compatriot of the 'criminals', informed the Editor of the Register that, in his opinion:
The first principle of all laws is that they should equally govern those in authority and those subservient to higher power. If they have not this aim they are unjust... It is most desirable in every way that perfect accord and harmony should exist between capital and labour, yet how can this be attained if men are dealt with in such an arbitrary and uncompromising spirit as that displayed by the informants in [this case].
There is no extant record to show whether the conservative government of the day took any notice of the foregoing cry for real justice. Indeed, the aggrieved labourers and the carpenter were, no doubt, in agreement with the words of a local poet who sprang to their defence with a few lines, the underlying philosophy of which is still applicable today:
Ill fades the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay.
Princes and lords may flourish and fade,
A breath can take them as a breath has made;
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroyed can never be supplied.
-
(Taken from Geoffrey H. Manning's A Colonial Experience, Chapter 108.)
A strike on the waterfront is reported in the Express,
17, 18 and 23 November 1882, pages 2f, 2g and 2c,
Advertiser,
21, 22 and 23 November 1882, pages 4d, 5f and 4f.
A banquet for the Port Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners is reported
in the Register,
7 November 1882, page 7b.
"The Lumpers at the Port" is in the Register,
20 and 23 September 1872, pages 5a and 5d,
Observer,
21 September 1872, page 7f,
"Stevedoring in the 1840s" by Joseph Stone on Register,
20 July 1906, page 6e.
Biographical details of Joseph Stone are in the Register,
22 December 1875, page 5b.
A strike of lumpers is reported in the Register,
18, 20, 21 and 23 November 1882, pages 6e, 5b-c and 6f, 6g and 6b; also see
19, 20 and 22 August 1887, pages 7c, 4g-6c and 5a.
A poem titled "The Lumper" is in The Lantern,
3 September 1887, page 19.
Sketches are in the Pictorial Australian in
October 1887, pages 148-149,
September 1890, pages 128-128,
October 1890, pages 148-149.
"Port Adelaide Lumpers" is in the Register,
5 July 1907, page 7i.
"Death of a Lumper [Leon Johnson]" is in the Register,
6 February 1909, page 14d.
"Lumping and the Lumpers" is in the Register,
11 October 1911, page 8d; also see
3 November 1911, page 11c.
Also see Port Adelaide - Ships & Shipping
"Departure of Lumpers for Melbourne" is in the Register,
7 January 1886, page 5b,
"The Hardworking Lumpers" on
4 and 12 November 1903, pages 6h and 6a,
Observer,
14 and 21 November 1903, pages 55 and 4a.
"A Day With the Stevedores" in the Register,
18 January 1904, page 8a.
A complaint about stevedoring being conducted on Sundays is made in the Express,
13 and 21 May 1884, pages 3c and 5d-6c,
24 March 1892, page 3f,
Register,
25 October 1906, page 6f.
Information on the Port Adelaide Working Men's Stevedore Company is in the Express,
5 June 1884, page 3e,
Register,
9 April 1886, page 7f.
Information on the Working Men and Women's Mission Hall is in the Register,
25 November 1883, page 5b.
"Sunday Trading at Port Adelaide" is in the Register,
4 December 1884, page 6h,
Chronicle,
6 December 1884, page 13b.
Express,
1 December 1884, page 4b.
Information on Sunday trading and a petition presented in an attempt to halt
it is in the Register, 4 and 5 March 1885, pages 7f and 7b.
Also see South Australia -
Religion - Breaking the Sabbath
"Grievances of Dockyard Employees" is in the Register,
5 October 1885, page 5d.
A report on a threat to the Saturday half-holiday by Messrs Jones Brothers
is reported in the Register,
18 May 1886, page 5b.
A visit to Port Adelaide by members of the Inter-Colonial Trades Union Congress
is reported in the Register,
9 September 1886, page 6d.
A dockyard workers' picnic is reported in the Register,
30 December 1886, page 6h.
"Unionism and Boycotting at Port Adelaide" is in the Register,
28 March 1887, page 3g.
A deputation to government from the Working Men's Association is reported
in the Register,
1 June 1887, page 4h,
Observer,
2 April 1887, page 5e.
"The Labour Difficulties" is in the Register,
20 August 1887, pages 4g-6c,
10, 11, 12 and 18 October 1887, pages 4e-5g-6a, 4e, 4g-5f and 4f.
A letter from John Oyston regarding the origin of "Eight-Hours Day" in South
Australia is in the Register,
20 September 1887, page 6e -
a rebuttal of some of the facts presented appears above the name of William
Whitehill on
23 September 1887, page 3h; also see
28 and 30 September 1887, pages 7h and 6g,
3 October 1887, page 7h,
12 July 1888, page 7d,
4 September 1888, page 6e,
2 November 1889, page 7a.
The inauguration of the Port Adelaide branch of the Eight-Hours Protective
Association is reported in the Register,
23 March 1888, page 7c; also see
12 July 1888, page 7d,
17 June 1889, page 5a and South
Australia - Industrial Relations - Eight Hours Day.
"Labour Difficulty at Port Adelaide" is in the Observer,
15 October 1887, pages 31e-33-34.
The first annual report of the Port Adelaide Maritime Labor Council is in
the Chronicle,
14 January 1888, page 8f.
An industrial dispute at Fletcher's shipwright yards is reported in the Register,
2 August 1888, page 4h.
Historical information is in the Observer,
1 January 1927, page 44e.
"The Unions and the Port" is in the Register,
29 July 1889, page 7e.
"A Labour Question at Port Adelaide" discussed at a public meeting is reported
in the Register, 19 March 1890, pages 4f-5g.
"The Labour Question at Port Adelaide" is in the Register,
15 January 1890, pages 4g-6b,
Trade unionism at Port Adelaide is discussed in the Express,
16 and 18 June 1890, pages 3d and 7d,
30 July 1890, page 5c,
12 August 1890, page 3d,
Advertiser,
30 July 1890, page 6d,
12 August 1890, page 6e.
A Free Labour Service conducted by a Mr Nottage is discussed in the Register,
15 December 1890, page 5b.
Information on local milkmen is in the Register,
16 June 1891, page 5c, 8 July 1891, page 5c.
"Trade Societies in Politics" is discussed in the Register,
6 October 1891, page 6d:
-
Port Adelaide has often been designated the hotbed of unionism presumably because
it was there that trade unionism, as we know it in South Australia, originated...
"The New Labour Movement" is in the Register,
8 January 1892, page 5b.
Information on the Wednesday "half-day" holiday movement is in the Register,
19 February 1892, page 5b.
Information on John Page, who played a major part in obtaining a Saturday half-holiday
at the Port, appears on
3 October 1913, page 8f.
A photograph of members of the Australian Workers' Union, Port Adelaide Branch,
is in the Chronicle,
27 June 1903, page 44.
"A Day With the Stevedores" is in the Register,
18 January 1904, page 8a.
Non-union labour is discussed in the Register,
12 May 1894, page 5e,
"Port Labour Disputes" on
12 and 15 November 1926, pages 8e and 9a.
Information on the Port Adelaide Driver's Union is in the Express,
5 March 1906, page 2d.
A "new banner" for the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners is described in the Register, 1 September 1906, page 6h.
Biographical details of Joseph Stone. "the oldest stevedore in the State",
are in the Register,
20 July 1908, page 4g.
An obituary of G.C. Smith is in the Observer,
4 June 1910, page 40a,
of W.F. Curtis on
18 April 1914, page 41a,
of Henry Hains on
19 August 1916, page 20c,
of J.R. Holker, first president of the Seamen's Union at Port Adelaide, on
19 January 1918, page 11a.
"Determined Drivers - Immense Strike Threatened" is in the Register,
10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19 and 23 December 1910, pages 13c, 7a, 6d-h-7a, 6c-7h,
7, 8d and 5f,
6 January 1911, page 4g.
Also see Adelaide - Industrial Relations.
"Port Adelaide Distress - Relief Committee Formed" is in the Register,
15 August 1914, page 10a.
"Loyal Port Adelaide Workers" is in the Register,
7 February 1916, page 4c.
An obituary of Joseph Hains is in the Register,
16 February 1916, page 4f.
"Expediting Wheat Handling" is in the Register,
29 March 1917, page 4g.
"Wharfworkers' Demands" is in the Register,
8 and 9 February 1918, pages 5d and 7c.
"Serious Dispute at Port Adelaide" is in the Register,
3, 4 and 10 January 1919, pages 7e, 7c and 7c; also see
22, 27 and 31 October 1919, pages 7g, 6e and 7e.
An obituary of W.H. Gorman, "a veteran unionist", is in the Register,
15 February 1919, page 6h.
"New Hall for Workers" is in The News,
23 June 1927, page 17c.
"Serious Riots on Waterfront" is reported in the Register,
28 and 29 September 1928, pages 9-10 and 8f-h,
1 October 1928, page 8c,
"On the Waterfront - An Appeal for Better Relations" on
13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 November 1928, pages 9d, 9d, 9d, 13d and 8h,
"Riot at Port Adelaide" on
15, 18 and 22 January 1929, pages 9a, 12a and 8c-9a.
"Distressed Women and Children at Port Adelaide" is in the Register,
9, 11, 12, 14 and 15 February 1929, pages 2a-6c, 2a, 30a, 8b and 2d-8b.
Waterside disputes are discussed in the Observer,
3 and 10 August 1929, pages 12 and 19d.
"The Desperate Plight of Port Adelaide" is in the Observer,
12 June 1930, page 36b,
4 September 1930, page 35b.
Essay on Industrial Relations - An Unjust Law
The roots of a call for a system of State interference in the conduct of industrial relations can be gleaned from the attitude of the employers and capitalists towards the labour force of the infant colony of South Australia. In 1837 this colonial class prevailed upon the newly constituted Government to pass its first law directed at oppressing the protest and dissent of labour.
The Masters and Servants Act was a draconian law which provided that any worker, deemed by the employer to have shown neglect of duty or disobedience, would be liable to six month's imprisonment and the forfeiture of wages. The Act was rejected by the British Government as too repressive but, during its short period of operation, the records show:
-
Thirteen successful actions by masters against servants in little more than
a year... Workers sentenced to imprisonment for terms of between a fortnight
and three weeks were chained to trees in the Parklands.
The fact that such a law existed, and was to return in a modified form in 1841, indicates that the foundations of the colony were not always laid in harmony.
The Act was still on the Statute Book when, in August 1882, 13 masons' labourers, employed on a daily basis by Messrs Robin and Hack at Port Adelaide, were refused an increase in wages and, accordingly, decided to withdraw their labour by walking off the building site. Their employers took umbrage and sought legal advice and, in due course, charged them under the provisions of the Masters and Servants Act with "unlawfully absenting themselves from their service".
According to a report of the trial the magistrate reached a strange conclusion when he contended that the alleged offenders were duty bound under the provisions of the Act to give a day's notice before leaving their master's employ. His decision was to fine each man "two day's and one hour's pay"!
A few days after the Court's decree was made known an irate carpenter, and no doubt a compatriot of the "criminals", informed the Editor of the Register that, in his opinion:
-
The first principle of all laws is that they should equally govern those in
authority and those subservient to higher power. If they have not this aim
they are unjust... It is most desirable in every way that perfect accord
and harmony should exist between capital and labour, yet how can this be
attained if men are dealt with in such an arbitrary and uncompromising spirit
as that displayed by the informants in [this case].
There is no extant record to show whether the conservative government of the day took any notice of the foregoing cry for real justice. Indeed, the aggrieved labourers and the carpenter were, no doubt, in sympathy with the words of James Penn Boucaut, a former three-times Premier of the colony - "Our legislation and system of government studies entirely too much the interests of capital...".
Ill fades the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay.
Princes and lords may flourish and fade,
A breath can take them as a breath has made;
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroyed can never be supplied.
Sources
J. Moss, Sound of Trumpets: History of the Labour Movement in South
Australia (1985), p. 60.
G.H. & H.R. Manning, Worth Fighting For: Work and Industrial Relations
in the Banking Industry in South Australia (1989), pp. 17-18.
Register,
17 August 1882, page 4f,
23 August 1882 (supp.), page 2a,
15 April 1887, page 7b (poem).
Boucaut Papers, Mortlock Library, no. 97/379, 28 August 1874.
