QHA_February_Mag_Web

COMPASS
MUSTERING COURAGE
QHA REVIEW | 40
THE GREAT SHEARERS’ STRIKE OF 1891 PUT
BARCALDINE ON THE MAP AS THE BIRTHPLACE
OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOUR MOVEMENT. JUST
“BARCY” TO ITS 1300 LOCALS, THE TOWN IS A
LENGTHY 520KM DRIVE ALONG THE CAPRICORN
HIGHWAY WEST OF ROCKHAMPTON AND WAS
ESTABLISHED AROUND THE VAST BARCALDINE
DOWNS SHEEP STATION IN THE 1880S.
By 1890 wool was one of Australia’s largest industries,
but Queensland shearers soon became fed up with its
inherent poor working conditions and low wages. A
strike originating on Darling Downs stations
quickly spread.
By February the following year central Queensland was
on the brink of civil war as camps of armed unionised
shearers formed outside towns and faced-off against
police protecting imported “scab” shearing gangs. In
May around 3000 striking shearers marched under the
Eureka Flag through Barcaldine, which had become
the unofficial HQ of the strike, and held a political rally
under the branches of a now famous ghost gum tree
in the main street.
Although the unionist shearers were eventually forced
to return to work at the stations out of hunger, the
strike is nonetheless associated with the formation of
the Australian Labor Party with several shearer strikers
going on to become some of the first Labor MPs.
Barcaldine’s ghost gum became a symbol of the
Australian labour movement and was given monument
status as The Tree of Knowledge not long after. Over
the years its importance grew as an icon of the town’s
identity and courage. Sadly, in 2006 the 7-metre high
tree was the victim of a malicious herbicide attack
and died. Its remains were subsequently preserved
intact and “re-rooted” in its original spot as part of a
revamped monument.
In its heyday Barcy had a head count of roughly 5000
who regularly patronised 11 pubs. Surprisingly, the
town now has more pubs per capita than it did then –
most within a convenient dag’s-rattle of each other on
the main street. Its four QHA member hotels are just
as lively on Facebook as they are when the taps are
flowing and the stubbie caps are flying.