North Coast Labour History

Process for contributing information

Friends - please use the comments option below each post for observations and to add information. Comments that equate new LH subject matter will then be highlighted in new posts.

North Coast Labour Heritage sites

Some years back Lucy Taksa and Terry Irving of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History published the Labour Heritage Register of NSW (citation below). It's now to be updated with, if the data is contributed, more entries on regional NSW. Sites include labour and union buildings, places of protest, locations or repositories of local labour history and labour artefacts.  So if you know of places that qualify for the register, post them here so that the info can be collated (and in the meantime shared on the blog), or send direct to the Society for forwarding to Lucy and Terry). rw.

Terry Irving & Lucy Taksa, Places, Protests, and Memorabilia: the Labour Heritage Register of New South Wales, Industrial Relations Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2002.

Turkish labour history

Ottoman/Middle East labour history

[Yes it's a long way from the north coast! but this advice was posted during 2008 on the H-Labor discussion list. It's a good model for reciprocal dissemination of labour history. rw]

.........

From: "Jamie Bronstein, H-SHEAR" 

Date: 24 May 2008 6:53:35 AM
To: H-LABOR@H-NET.MSU.EDU
Subject: Ottoman Labor History
Reply-To: H-Net Labor History Discussion List 

There is a new website devoted to labor history during the late Ottoman and
modern Middle East era. It contains originals and translations of books,
articles and contemporary original documents. These materials connect to
many issues regarding social and economic and gender studies. These
materials may be used at will. The site managers-John Chalcraft of the LSE
and Don Quataert, SUNY Binghamton-ask only that you formally acknowledge
such use. Moreover, we welcome additions of any materials you may have.
Contact either of us at the addresses noted on the site.

The url : http://bingiwas.binghamton.edu/~ottmiddl/

Brunswick Heads Re-visited?

Brunswick Heads History

http://www.brunswickheads.org.au/brunswick/history/9

This link briefly outlines early Brunswick Heads influences, and makes reference to some of the issues confronted in labour history. It's ironic that the coming of the railway to Mullumbimby meant decline in 'Bruns', given that the demise of the railway in 2003 cut important links between the Northern Rivers towns of Lismore-Mullumbimby-Byron Bay. The railway siding (established in 1910) at the village of  Billinudgel, near to Brunswick Heads and Ocean Shores and which galvanised village development, closed* at some earlier 'rationalisation'.

Some other coverage on the 'old' Bruns Bridge' and its demolition by the RTA, following the massive upgrade of the Pacific Highway through to Yelgun. :
> Govt press release 2006 at www.minister.infrastructure.gov.au/ jl/releases/2006/December/L161_2006.htm; 
> local newspaper the Echo at www.minister.infrastructure.gov.au/ jl/releases/2006/December/L161_2006.htm) o

NCLHC is interested in comment relating to work/ labour community on the North Coast that touches on these issues. 

*For this post, seeking info on just when the Billinudgel railway siding closed. The photo gallery features some 2008 pics (uploaded from my albums) taken at the siding. 

rw

North Coast Labour History Collective

This is the weblog for the New South Wales North Coast Labour History Collective. 

Why blog North Coast Labour History? Labour history in this part of Australia is fast being run over by government, papered over by developers, and left behind when people move on, often when their jobs have been deleted by the actions of those governments and developers.

However, since the early days of New South Wales this has been an important area for logging, rail, agriculture, fishing, industries that supported extended rural and town communities, including trade union community. Rail was wiped out in 2003 in a colluson between government and road transport interests that prioritised heavy vehicle transport, and road/air travel, over rail. Logging pretty much nearly destroyed swathes of this beautiful environment. Fishing continues. The newspapers that spoke to and for the region have been decimated though we still, proudly, retain vital independent press. Community? well, up here it just keeps on reforming, even generating new and smaller industries. But destruction of labour sites, dispersal of jobs and the 11 years of Howard politics has undercut both trade unions and the industrial networks already weakened by the disappearance of trades and labour councils as the region's profile changed. To date, none of this has been reclaimed under Rudd Labor.

In view of all of this the aims of the collective are a) to create links for recording the labour history of the north coast and b) to provide an on-line forum for history and labour communities to share debate, concerns, and knowledge, and to generate links between historians and unionists, including new unionists, that will feed into labour identity in the region.

Several founding members of North Coast LHC are members of the ASSLH, the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, who are, because of regional distances, too far from our branches to regularly attend in-face meetings and too far from each other to establish a new branch. The collective maintains informal connections with nearby LH Branches such as the Brisbane Labour History Association and also the Sydney Branch. Most of us are, or have been, union and political activists, and hope to establish on-line links with local unions, for example through the re-generated Northern Rivers Union Network. So, while our focus is on this area's labour history, our connections and interests go wider.

Welcoming your input. Rosemary, for the collective.