AustLit

'The first thing I did when I began work on the Australian Workers' Union (AWU) was to re-read "The Australian Legend". This closer reading helped me develop a research program for the AWU's early years, when it was composed exclusively of pastoral industry workers. By 1907 the AWU was Australia's largest and seemingly strongest union, yet in that year it registered with the newly formed Commonwealth Arbitration Court. I became so interested in this apparent contradiction that I abandoned my plan to write about the large general union of the mid-twentieth century. The Making of the AWU (1986) ended with the AWU's second shearing award. The Union was then 'made', both in the sense of being firmly established and in the sense of having acquired its characteristic adherence to arbitration. There are differences between the shearers of "The Australian Legend" and the shearers of "The Making of the AWU".'

Source: Article abstract.