Recently to hand is a July 17, 1991 newspaper advertising feature marking 100 years of the ALP in Townsville, a place similar to Darwin in many ways. From the Townsville Bulletin , it included an 1891 photograph of the camp site of hundreds of men, women and children who took part in the Hughenden shearers’ strike and attracted the attention of the Townsville Mounted Rifles.
One of the key figures in the Townsville union movement in the 1880s was Anthony Ogden, a meatworker and wharf labourer . Ogden became a Queensland politician and a mayor . On his retirement it was decided to rename Flinders Lane, Townsville, Ogden Street , in his honour. While of itself a flattering proposal, he wanted the brothels removed before his name graced the street directory.
Those North Queensland unionists of yesteryear and their colourful and tough officials -canecutters, shearers, wharfies,mine workers – were a different breed to today’s rather tame union officials who often seem more like members of the quaint defunct junior chambers of commerce. Over the years there were rebel laborites like Bundaberg's "Bombshell Barnes " and Labor alderman Tom Aitkens who was expelled for supporting aid to Russia. The dynamic,hard working Communist barrister, Fred Patterson, who visited the Territory on several occasions in the late 1930s and 40s, was elected in the Queensland seat of Bowen.
One of the key figures in the Townsville union movement in the 1880s was Anthony Ogden, a meatworker and wharf labourer . Ogden became a Queensland politician and a mayor . On his retirement it was decided to rename Flinders Lane, Townsville, Ogden Street , in his honour. While of itself a flattering proposal, he wanted the brothels removed before his name graced the street directory.
Those North Queensland unionists of yesteryear and their colourful and tough officials -canecutters, shearers, wharfies,mine workers – were a different breed to today’s rather tame union officials who often seem more like members of the quaint defunct junior chambers of commerce. Over the years there were rebel laborites like Bundaberg's "Bombshell Barnes " and Labor alderman Tom Aitkens who was expelled for supporting aid to Russia. The dynamic,hard working Communist barrister, Fred Patterson, who visited the Territory on several occasions in the late 1930s and 40s, was elected in the Queensland seat of Bowen.
This writer spent some memorable evenings drinking with a band of unionists in a pub on the Cairns waterfront area known as the Barbary Coast, during the early 1960s Queerah meatworks dispute. The unfortunate managers at the meatworks were the Pegg brothers, a surname instantly, if not sooner, converted to porkers. During those lively pub gatherings, ribald and outrageous anecdotes were told, the up the workers spirit prevailed and supplies of fillet mignon for the bosses suddenly ran dangerously low, probably because the strikers were dining on the best cuts.
The special newspaper section about the Townsville ALP carried messages of congratulations from various politicians, including one from the NT Senator, Bob Collins, then the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Northern Australia. Also congratulating the Townsville ALP Branch was W.P .Ludwig , secretary of the Queensland branch of the Australian Workers’ Union , whose photograph made him look as if he had just undergone the first stages of a hair transplant. Ludwig and son are powerful political figures in Queensland today.
The important part played by women in the early days of unions and the ALP in Queensland was covered at length . It was interesting to read that Australia’s first female linotype operator ,Phoebe Lewis , began working in the Townsville printing trade in l897. In 1902, a woman jockey , Wilhemena Smith, of Cairns, known only as “Bill” , was riding winners . 1916, Rose Harris, of Clermont, was the first woman saddler in Australia.. Jean Devanny , socialist writer , public speaker and organiser , stirred up the North Queensland scene ( she will figure in a major Little Darwin feature to be posted in the future). Another prominent person was Margaret Reynolds , the first Labor woman Senator and minister in Queensland.
Pictured in the feature were members of Townsville’s longest serving Labor city council, led by the politically ambitious mayor , Tony Mooney. An alderman , Richard Cleal , later became Peter Beattie’s chief of staff.
The council, still headed by Mooney, was annihilated at the forced amalgamation of the two Townsville councils, only one former ALP alderman being elected, a woman . At the last moment, Mooney reportedly did a backflip in his support for a proposed Chinese smelter on the outskirts of the city and lost the vote for the mayoralty of greater Townsville. It is said he tried to sound out a seat in the Brisbane area but was not successful.
