CLERMONT RAG FRIDAY, 25 JUNE 2021
TAKE A STEP BACK IN TIME AT THE CLERMONT HISTORICAL CENTRE FROM THE PAST Shearers on Strike The Shearer’s Strike of 1891 started in the Clermont district, resulting in hundreds of union-aligned shearers camped around Clermont, on strike until pastoralists agreed to pay shearers better wages and conditions for all shearers. Following a riot of unionist shearers in Clermont in March 1891, seven unionist shearers were arrested and faced trial in Rockhampton Supreme but found not guilty of the charges.
SHEARERS TRIED FOR CONSPIRACY No sooner had seven unionist shearers been tried in the Rockhampton Supreme Court and found not guilty of charges of riot and assault, and riot and tumult in relation to the shearers’ riot in Clermont, another 14 unionist shearers appeared in the Rockhampton Supreme Court all charged with conspiracy. The case began on May 1, 1891 and finished on May 20, 1891. Mr Justice Harding presided over the case against George Taylor, William Fothergill, Hugh Octavius Blackwell, Thomas Joseph Ryan, William James Bennett, Alfred John Brown, Isaac Fry, Robert Prince, William Hamilton, Julian Alexander Salmon
Stuart, Patrick Joseph Griffin, Henry Charles Smith Barry, Edward Hartnett Murphy and Alexander Forrester. Taylor was an organiser for various unions in the Central District, which included Clermont and Capella. Fothergill was secretary of the Central District Council at Barcaldine while Blackwell was secretary of the Labourers’ Union at Barcaldine. Ryan was chairman of the Barcaldine Strike Committee while Bennett and Brown were members of that committee. Fry, Prince and Hamilton had taken a prominent part at Clermont in interfering with non-unionist shearers. Stewart was chairman of the Sandy Creek unionist camp at Clermont and Griffin was the chairman of the Capella unionist camp. Murphy as an agent of the Shearers’ and Labourers’ Unions (Maranoa Branch) at St George. Forrester was an organiser for the Maranoa district. The conspiracy charge was derived from a statute of King George IV and was in force in Queensland but not England. Simplified, the statute enacted that it was unlawful for anyone to, by violence, threaten, intimidate,
Continued on Page 2...
FOR MORE INFORMATION: ISAAC.QLD.GOV.AU | 1300 ISAACS (1300 47 22 27) isaacregionalcouncil
isaacregionalcouncil
isaacrcouncil