Barcaldine and the birth of the Australian Labour Movement

Leaving Blackall we were heading to Longreach for two nights and then on to Winton.

We broke our journey to Longreach at Barcaldine for lunch.  After having something to eat and walking along the main street of the town, we stumbled upon the story of the key role Barcaldine had in the establishment of the Australian Labour Movement.

First a little background from Wikipedia.

"The town takes its name from a sheep station called Barcaldine Downs, which was established in 1863 by Donald Cameron, whose family property in Ayrshire, Scotland, which was named for Barcaldine, Argyll and Bute, Scotland."....." Barcaldine played a significant role in the Australian labour movement and the birth of the Australian Labor Party. In 1891, it was one of the focal points of the 1891 Australian shearers' strike, with the Eureka Flag flying over the strike camp. The landmark Tree of Knowledge, under which the strikers met, stood outside the railway station. In 2006, persons unknown poisoned the tree with the herbicide Roundup, which led to its demise."

The tree has been replaced by a wooden and steel sculpture representing the tree and along the footpath leading up to the tree panels and sculptures have been placed providing more historical items related to the town.

Some photos from our walk are shown in a gallery below.

Heritage Trail Barcaldine

A photo of a tree lined path at the beginning of the heritage trail

Streetscape

A shot along the street at the front of one of the hotels

Tree of Knowledge sculpture from a distance

A view to the large wooden slatted box on a steel frame that contains the Tree of Knowledge sculpture

Vertical panorama of the Tree of Knowledge Sculpture

A vertical inside view of the suspended stained wooden panels that make up the sculpture of what was until 2006 a living tree

Paul posing next to the base of the Tree of Knowledge

Having been a member of a union for my whole professional life I wanted to have a photo taken next to this representation of the beginning of the labour movement

A closer view of Paul by the tree

Bronze plaque depicting Unionist Prisoners

This is a picture of the bronze plaque that commemorates Unionists who were imprisoned in 1891 in relation to the shearer's strike

One of the historic hotels in Barcaldine

History street panels

A street view of a series of History information panels constructed by the council along the Heritage trail.

Henry Lawson information panel

This panel shows a picture of Henry Lawson and the words of his poem Freedom on the Wallaby which was written as a comment on the 1891 shearer's strike based in Barcaldine.

The start of the story...

This is the first of two etched panels detailing the story of the Shearer's strike

The fall out

This etched panel details the chronology of the events in the shearer's strike.

First view of sculpture by Milynda Rogers

Side on view of sculpture of shearer pledging his allegiance in the fight for justice during the shearer's strike.

View from another angle of Milynda Roger's sculpture

Alternate view of sculpture of shearer pledging his allegiance in the fight for justice during the shearer's strike.

Plaque at base of statue

A plaque at the base of the Shearer's statue explains the reason and background for the sculpture, including the role of the Eureka flag and also that the sculpture was made from metal gathered around the area from old tools.

View of C Pattern Windmill

Windmill Plaque

Plaque giving information about the windmill. This windmill was first erected at Back creek, east of Barcaldine and was one of the first free flowing bores in Queensland.

Additional windmill plaque

Trail of headstones about the strike

Photo of an hibiscus growing along the heritage trail