Working conditions in Australia, c1900

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This is a collection of 25 digital curriculum resources focusing on Australians at work around 1900. The resources are grouped into ten categories - major projects; primary industry; small business; the clothing industry; the post office; newspaper production; working with haulage animals; mining; logging; and working at home. The collection includes archival film footage, photographs and a painting. The highlight of the collection is a series of video clips showing men working for the Sydney Morning Herald.

		ID	Title and description	Acknowledgements
		R6132	Laying pipes across the Darling Ranges, c1902 This is a posed black-and-white photograph showing the laying and jointing of a section of the Coolgardie Water Supply pipeline to Western Australia's eastern gold fields. It shows a number of people working in terrain typical of the forest country in the Darling Ranges and indicates the extensive timber clearing that was undertaken. Many lengths of pipe are laid out into the distance alongside the excavated trench. In the middle distance a team of workers is lowering a length of pipe into the trench using a pair of A-frame hoists. Several lengths of pipe are in place, complete with their joint rings, in the middle foreground. Closer to the foreground a caulking (joint-sealing) machine is set up above a pipe joint. The photograph measures 11 cm x 15 cm.	Reproduced courtesy of Battye Library.
		R8135	Across the Trans-Continental Railway, c1917: Laying the railway line This silent black-and-white clip shows scenes from the construction of the Trans-Australian Railway between Port Augusta in South Australia and Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The opening scene of men unloading timber sleepers is followed by scenes of two men in a buggy driving alongside the railway track, of a steam engine and of teams of men carrying heavy rails into position. A slow pan shows work on an elevated section of line and the clip concludes with a tracking shot of stockpiled sleepers.	Reproduced courtesy of australiascreen online.

		ID	Title and description	Acknowledgements
		R8006	Pacific Islander labourers clearing land, c1895 This is a black-and-white photograph showing nine Pacific Islander men using picks and axes to clear undergrowth and small trees from a clearing in a thickly vegetated area at Farnborough in central Queensland. The men are bare-chested, hatless and barefoot, with some wearing sarong-like garments. A white man stands in their midst and supervises their work.	Reproduced courtesy of State Library of Queensland.
		R8179	Chinese farm workers planting cane, Cairns, 1890s This is a black-and-white 1890s photograph portraying about 12 men, presumed to be Chinese as some wear conical hats, manually laying sugar-cane cuttings, or setts, at regular intervals in long furrows in a large paddock on Hambledon Sugar Plantation near Cairns in Queensland. In the background are a mounted overseer supervising their work and two horsedrawn ploughs tilling more furrows in the extensive field.	Reproduced courtesy of State Library of Queensland.
		R3951	Maize silo stack, Hilltop, Tilba Tilba, c1895 This is a black-and-white photograph of a partially constructed maize silo stack in an open field. It shows five workers - four on top of the stack and one on the ground. Several horses are being used in the construction of the stack, which is at least two storeys high. The silo has an open rectangular wooden frame that is supported by diagonal braces. Lightly forested slopes can be seen in the background. The photograph was taken by William Henry Corkhill.	Reproduced courtesy of National Library of Australia. Photograph by William Henry Corkhill.
		R8118	Wheat Harvesting with Reaper and Binder at Jimbour, Qld, 1899 This clip shows a farmer on a horse-drawn Buckeye Mower and Reaper, harvesting wheat. Men walk alongside the machine, stacking the sheaves (bundles) of wheat in neat rows. A child and dog can also be seen playing among the sheaves. The footage, which is silent and black and white, was shot at Jimbour in Queensland's Darling Downs in 1899.	Reproduced courtesy of australiascreen online.
		M002600	Three men on horseback, droving sheep with dogs, c1910 This is a photograph showing Dr Sydney Pern and John Joseph 'JJ' O'Connor droving sheep with another man in the Gippsland hills, around 1910. The image was collected as part of the Melbourne's Biggest Family Album project in 2006. It is a digital scan of the original photograph.	Reproduced courtesy of Museum Victoria.
		R3595	Shearing by machinery, 1890-1917 This is a black-and-white photograph from a silver gelatin dry-plate glass negative, titled 'Shearing by Machinery', produced by the studio of Charles Kerry and Co, Sydney, between about 1890 and 1917. The image depicts the interior of a large shearing shed. In the centre of the image is a shearing board with mechanised shearing equipment running down the board on the left and right. Approximately 14 shearers can be seen shearing sheep. Three young boys can be seen collecting the shorn fleeces. The timber beams of the roof clad in corrugated iron are visible, with several windows providing natural light to the shearing board area. The caption, studio number and studio mark are inscribed on the reverse of the negative.	Reproduced courtesy of Powerhouse Museum. Photograph by Charles Kerry and Co, Sydney.

		ID	Title and description	Acknowledgements
		R9150	Living Hawthorn, 1906: Businesses and street life, Hawthorn This black-and-white silent clip shows footage of street life in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn at the beginning of the 20th century and includes pedestrians, horse-drawn taxi cabs, carriages, bicycles and carts as well as shops and shopkeepers. The reactions of adults and children as they perform for or stare at the camera reflect its novelty at the time. The clip depicts typical clothing styles of the time, including children in sailor suits, girls in school uniform, men in waistcoats and high white collars and women in long dresses.	Reproduced courtesy of australianscreen online.
		R6154	Scenes in Hamilton, c1915 - asset 2 This is silent black-and-white film footage of street scenes, possibly in the country town of Hamilton in Victoria's Western District, in about 1915. The excerpt shows two horse-drawn buggies approaching an intersection. The camera then pans left to reveal a large bank building, pedestrians, a strip of shopfronts on a main street and horse-drawn vehicles. The excerpt cuts to a shot of 'Goss and Johnson Family Butchers'. Three men in striped butcher's aprons, who are observed by onlookers, are struggling to hang a carcass beneath the shop's awning.	Reproduced courtesy of National Film and Sound Archive.

		ID	Title and description	Acknowledgements
		R7338	For Love or Money, 1983: First women's union This clip shows etchings, newspaper headlines and archival photographs of individuals and women in factories that illustrate the history of women's employment in late-19th-century Australia. The visuals are accompanied by a voice-over narration, readings of original texts and an avant-garde soundtrack. All these elements, together with the rapid change of images, dramatise the background to and beginnings of organised female unionism in Australia.	Reproduced courtesy of australiascreen online.

		ID	Title and description	Acknowledgements
		R2997	Telephonists at the Brisbane telephone exchange, 1910 This is a black-and-white photograph taken in 1910 of women telephonists at the Brisbane telephone exchange. The photograph shows a long row of women wearing headsets and seated at a manual 'plug and cord' switchboard. Two women, who are supervisors, observe the telephonists. The man at the rear of the photograph is the manager of the exchange, Mr Watson. The photograph accompanied an article about the introduction of a new automatic telephone toll system at the exchange, which appeared in the 10 September edition of the weekly newspaper 'The Queenslander' in 1910.	From the collection of the National Archives of Australia.
		R2418	Yorketown Post Office technology This is a black-and-white photograph probably taken early in the 20th century inside the Yorketown Post Office in South Australia. It shows three men: one is using a typewriter, one identified as Tom Spender is using a morse key, and the third man is using a telephone at a small exchange.	From the collection of the National Archives of Australia.

		ID	Title and description	Acknowledgements
		R2078	Carting paper to the stores This is an excerpt from a 1910 silent documentary film, 'The Sydney Morning Herald'. It shows men on a wharf in Sydney, New South Wales, in the process of rolling large cylinders of paper up a ladder-like ramp onto a dray. Once loaded, the horses and drays are shown carting the paper through Sydney streets to the stores of John Fairfax and Sons, publishers of the 'Sydney Morning Herald' in Ultimo, a distance of approximately 2 kilometres. The footage is introduced by the intertitle 'CARTING TO THE STORES'. Two more intertitles, 'HERALD PAPER STORES' and 'CAPACITY: 6 MONTHS’ SUPPLY', are interspersed into the footage.	Reproduced courtesy of National Film and Sound Archive.
		R7073	The Sydney Morning Herald, 1911: Stereotyping at Fairfax This clip was filmed in 1911 and shows two men at the 'Sydney Morning Herald' composing type for a newspaper page in a rectangular steel frame and then making a soft mould of the type as part of the stereotyping process. The black-and-white clip is silent and uses intertitles to introduce the key stages of production: 'MAKING UP THE PAGES', 'STEREOTYPING' and 'MAKING THE MATRIX FROM THE TYPE'.	Reproduced courtesy of australianscreen online.
		R7074	The Sydney Morning Herald, 1911: Preparing the printing machine This silent black-and-white clip shows a group of workers at the 'Sydney Morning Herald' unloading the metal plates of each page from the lift into the printing room. The workers furnish the large printing machine with a roll of paper and the metal plates. The clip uses an intertitle to introduce the stage of production: 'FURNISHING ONE OF THE SIX BIG MACHINES IN THE PRESS ROOM WITH PAPER AND PLATES'.	Reproduced courtesy of australianscreen online.
		R2080	Newspaper printing press in action This is an excerpt from a 1910 silent documentary film entitled 'The Sydney Morning Herald', which shows the printing press of John Fairfax and Sons in Ultimo, Sydney in the early 1900s. The segment begins with an intertitle: 'STARTING UP. THIS MACHINE PRINTS 48,000 8 PAGE PAPERS PER HOUR'. It shows close-up shots of the printing rollers as they slowly begin to print the continuous roll of paper. The rollers then accelerate to their normal operating speed.	Reproduced courtesy of National Film and Sound Archive.
		R7075	The Sydney Morning Herald, 1911: Folding mechanism of print machine This clip shows workers at the 'Sydney Morning Herald' overseeing the mechanical process of folding and compiling newspapers. Once compiled, the newspapers are transferred onto trays on a mechanical hoist and transported to the distribution room. An intertitle, 'MECHANICAL HOIST TAKING THE PAPERS TO THE PUBLISHING ROOM', is used to explain the stage of production in this silent black-and-white clip.	Reproduced courtesy of australianscreen online.

		ID	Title and description	Acknowledgements
		M000437	Wagon loaded with wheat, 1880-1900 This is a black-and-white photograph from a silver gelatin dry-plate glass negative, attributed to George Bell and produced by the studio of Charles Kerry and Co, Sydney. It shows a horsedrawn wagon at Narromine railway station, fully loaded with bags of wheat. The cart is harnessed to ten horses. Two men face each other in the foreground. One man is dressed in work clothing and is holding a whip, the second appears to be wearing a uniform, possibly a railway master's uniform. A saddled horse is also in the foreground. Men in suits are in the background. The caption, studio number and studio mark are inscribed on the reverse of the negative (not shown).	Reproduced courtesy of Powerhouse Museum. Photograph by Charles Kerry and Co, Sydney.
		M000808	Bullock team moving a road roller, 1880-1900 This is a black-and-white photograph from a silver gelatin full-plate glass negative produced by the studio of Henry King, Sydney. It shows a bushland scene. In the centre a man is tending to a team of bullocks pulling a road roller. The image is titled 'Bullock team'. The caption, studio number and studio mark are inscribed on the reverse of the negative (not shown).	Reproduced courtesy of Powerhouse Museum.
		R6160	Scenes in Hamilton, c1915 - asset 8 This is silent black-and-white film footage of circus elephants pulling a large wagon that is bogged on a muddy track. It opens with the intertitle 'CIRCUS IN DIFFICULTIES' and then shows a line of elephants attached to a wagon by harnesses and chains. The wagon is laden with canvas and poles that may be part of the big top, the large main tent at a circus. The camera pans across to show a horse and carriage, and several onlookers. The excerpt then cuts to a shot of a single elephant pulling a smaller, empty wagon on which a man is standing. Several other men, with the help of an elephant, transfer the load from the large to the small wagon. The film, which was made around 1915, was possibly shot in Hamilton, Victoria.	Reproduced courtesy of National Film and Sound Archive.

		ID	Title and description	Acknowledgements
		R4735	Dryblowing in Coolgardie, c1894 This is a black-and-white photograph taken by Roy Millar on the Coolgardie gold fields of Western Australia. It shows a prospector using a dryblowing machine to separate gold from the earth. The dryblowing machine is surrounded by evidence of digging and various prospectors' tools including a shovel, pans, sieves and an axe. A drystone wall structure is front left and in the cleared area in the background is a hut with a fenced-off yard. The photograph is captioned: ‘Roy Millar, Photo Dryblowing in Coolgardie WA’. It measures 25.3 cm x 18.3 cm.	Reproduced courtesy of Battye Library. Photograph by Roy Millar.

		ID	Title and description	Acknowledgements
		R3208	'Geeveston Saw Mills and wagon load', 1890s This is a sepia albumen photograph taken by J W Beattie in the 1890s, measuring 17.4 cm x 22.3 cm, and titled 'Geeveston Saw Mills and wagon load'. It depicts a timber worker standing at the front of a railway wagon loaded with a massive sawn tree trunk in the yard of Geeveston Saw Mills, Tasmania. The log is both chained to and wedged on the wagon, which runs on eight squat wheels and is pulled by horses, one of which can be made out, blurred by movement, on the left. In the background, behind the sawmill buildings, is a hillside which has been logged, leaving only small trees behind.	Reproduced courtesy of National Library of Australia. Photograph by John Watt Beattie.

		ID	Title and description	Acknowledgements
		R3222	Washing clothes in an iron tub, c1890s This is a black-and-white photograph made from a glass negative. It shows a woman washing clothes by hand in a galvanised iron tub outdoors, beside a high fence made from sheets of galvanised iron. A cane laundry basket and washed clothes hanging on a clothes line can be seen.	Reproduced courtesy of National Library of Australia. Photograph by Robert Morse Withycombe.
		R3377	'Kitchen at the old King Street bakery' This is an oil painting on canvas (50.6 cm x 61.2 cm) showing the kitchen area of the family home in which the artist, Frederick McCubbin, (1855-1917) was born. It is a functional space, as evidenced by the kettle set on a glowing fire; a teacup and saucer on a wooden table next to a chair; and various utensils including pots, pans, jugs, clothes, candlesticks and a drying rack. A glimpse of a small yard can be seen through the lace curtain of the kitchen window, while the open door that leads to an adjoining room shows a sewing machine next to a window. The overturned sewing basket in the foreground suggests that someone has just hurriedly left the room.	From the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. M J M Carter AO Collection 1992. Artwork by Frederick McCubbin.