The Labor Party is in charge of Australia. Some would say " Happy Days! "
Many of us are concerned.
Why? The party that was born on the shearers back is in charge? What is wrong with that?
"On the wallaby" was, along with "hump the bluey", "shoulder the knot" and "gone up the track", one of the many slang terms for getting out on the outback roads and tracks in search of work. With little more than a change of clothes rolled up in a swag, a sugar bag with some food in it, a water bag and a billy can, thousands of Australian men went 'up the track' looking for work in the economic depressions of the 1890's and 1930's.
The great poet, Henry Lawson, wrote a poem about the shearers' strike in 1891. The last two stanzas were read out by a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, which lead to calls for Lawson to be tried for sedition.
Henry Lawson? Tried for sedition?
Maybe it's an Aussie thing.
But you don't try Henry Lawson for sedition.
His final stanzas in his poem said:
So we must fly a rebel flag,
As others did before us,
And we must sing a rebel song
And join in rebel chorus.
We'll make the tyrants feel the sting
O' those that they would throttle;
They needn't say the fault is ours
If blood should stain the wattle!"
In 1891, the Australian Sheep Shearers went on strike.
On January 5, 1891 the strike began at Logan Downs Station in Central Queensland, when the station manager asked shearers to sign a contract which would reduce working conditions and entitlements as well as the influence of the union.
The strike spread across other stations in Central Queensland towns such as Clermont, Barcaldine, Emerald, Springsure, Hughenden and Capella. Pastoralists attempted to introduce strikebreakers (non-union affilated shearers) who worked for a lower rate. Tensions ran high with police and troopers called in to protect the non-union workers as well as the property of the pastoralists. Striking shearers formed armed camps outside of towns.
After several months the strike was ultimately unsuccessful for the shearers, with many falling on hard times due to a lack of money. Thirteen of the strike ringleaders were arrested and sentenced to three years hard labour at St Helena Island prison. The strike however would eventually lead to the formation of the Australian Labor Party. source
How ironic it seems that the party that was born under a tree in the bush is now the party of the inner city greens.
How unusual.
How tragic.
It's been 131 years since the Great Shearers Strike.
How much things have changed.
And yet, they have stayed the same.
Only the principles and moral character of our so-called representatives have altered. We, the people, have we stayed the same? Or just some of us?
We still work hard. We still strive for justice and equality: a fair day's work for a fair day's pay.
Yet others do not. It worries me that the people who gathered under a green tree in Barcaldine now gather under a tree in an inner city suburb and lecture us about hard work and how to live our lives.
What has happened to the Labor Party? The party of the ordinary bloke? Has it left and we are really disappearing - just another dying race?
I don't know. Much the same as the Democrats in America.
They all sold us out like spongecakes. Do they really care? Throughout the world.
Yet we are increasingly told to work harder, pay more tax, pay more of our hard earned coin to support people who want to come to our countries and sleep under the tree of knowledge - yet our politicians have no knowledge of us at all.
They no longer fight for our rights. They fight for their own.
Yes, I have put it up before. But I will put it up again. Just to remind you. And don't fret. I will get stuck into The Libs - it seems only fair.
Full text pf the poem is available here
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