Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Union Ticket

Union Ticket

1891-92
Printed ephemera
Bequest of Sir William Dixson, 1952
DN / P 631

Through the 19th century, the conditions under which shearers worked were notoriously bad, with low wages often compounded by poor accommodation and rations. The Amalgamated Shearers’ Union was formed in 1887, and over the next few years won some improvements for members.

By the early 1890s relations between the shearers and pastoralists were becoming increasingly bitter. Drought, the introduction of mechanical shears and confrontations between unions, pastoralists and shearers culminated in strikes in Queensland and NSW, supported by maritime workers who refused to handle ‘black’ wool – wool harvested using non-union, or ‘scab, labour.

Thomas Holding may well have needed ‘the protection of the Union’ at this time. Depicting a figure mounted on horseback and a shearer at his stand in the shearing shed, his ticket is quite ornate. The text down the perforated left-hand edge, ‘Shearers & General Labourers’ Record’, refers to the newspaper of the shearers’ union. Like many union newspapers of today, the shearers’ paper included imagery, songs, poems and games designed to increase awareness, pride, loyalty and camaraderie among shearers and their labour struggle.

On 10 October 1892, the Australian shearer Jackie Howe shore 321 sheep in seven hours and 40 minutes – that’s one sheep every 105 seconds. The week before, he set the record for the most number of sheep shorn in a week – 1437 sheep in 44 hours and 30 minutes.

The Australian folk song ‘Click go the shears’ details a day’s work for a shearer in the days before machine shears.

The introduction of machine shears in the late 1880s allowed higher tallies but divided shearers over their use.