Toowoomba Trades Hall is a heritage-listed Trades Hall at 19A Russell Street, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Matthew Williamson and built by Kell & Rigby. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 29 October 2010.
History
The Toowoomba Trades Hall in Russell Street was built in 1934 by Kell & Rigby to the design of architect MC Williamson, for the Toowoomba Trades Hall Board, a group associated with the Toowoomba Trades and Labour Council.
As collectives agitating for improved working conditions, trade unions have been present in Queensland's economic landscape since its early beginnings as a colony. By the mid 1860s, small groups of skilled workers such as bricklayers, carpenters and stonemasons had organized into unions in Brisbane. When Queensland's economy and immigrant population expanded during the 1880s, trade unionism and labour activism became more widespread, encompassing a broader cross-section of workers, including those employed in pastoral and extractive industries throughout the colony. Over time, union activity and membership has experienced marked periods of growth and decline, affected by prevailing economic, social and political factors.
Like other Queensland cities with significant industrial components to their economy, Toowoomba became a regional centre for union activity. From the 1860s notable events connected to the labour movement were occurring in Toowoomba. In November 1865 about 200 navvies on the Main Range railway working ten-hour days for 7s 6d went on strike and marched into Toowoomba, to agitate for eight shillings for an eight-hour day. Early in 1866 Toowoomba's carpenters celebrated the commencement of the "eight hour system" for their trade. Although short-lived, it was at a meeting of 200 shearers in Toowoomba in March 1875 that the Queensland Shearers Union was formed, 12 years before another shearer's union was established. During the shearers strike of 1891, ten prisoners convicted of rioting at Lorne Station (some local), were railed to Toowoomba for trial, en route to Brisbane. A large group of union supporters assembled inside and outside the Court House, cheering on the prisoners. Troops were assembled and the local magistrate read the Riot Act, before the situation was defused by allowing large numbers of unionists to attend the trial.
In the early 20th century, smaller scale manufacturing connected to pastoral, extractive, primary processing and public utilities were the dominant industrial activities on the Darling Downs, employing a workforce of some 6000 people. As its major urban settlement, Toowoomba had the largest industrial base of the Darling Downs, with a range of enterprises including engineering, coach and wagon works, joineries and furniture makers, tanneries, maltings and breweries. In the 1920s Toowoomba's biggest employers were the larger scale industrial operations of the Toowoomba Foundry, the Defiance Flour Mill, and the Darling Downs Co-operative Dairy and Bacon Factories. Queensland Railways were also a significant employer, as it was the hub of the South-western rail network.
Queensland's first Trades and Labour Council was established in Brisbane in 1885, superseded by the Brisbane District Council of the Australasian Labour Federation (ALF) in 1889. Until its demise in 1914, the ALF operated during a period in which some of Australia's most tumultuous workers' conflicts had occurred, including the maritime workers' and shearers' strikes of the 1890s. The 1910s saw the emergence of the rurally-oriented Australian Workers Union (AWU), which became Queensland's most dominant union organization and rival to other large union bodies. By 1922 a range of these such as the Brisbane Industrial Council, Trades Hall Board and Eight Hours Union had negotiated to form the Queensland Trades and Labour Council (QTLC). Within its structure affiliated provincial councils existed throughout Queensland.