Protests & strikes

A group of soldiers marching
On This Day

1916 military riot in Sydney

On 14 February 1916 thousands of soldiers from the Liverpool military camp took strike action

A large group of men stand in front of a train carriage at the Eveleigh Workshops in 1917

Eveleigh Workshops during the 1917 railway strike

On 2 August 1917 the General Strike began. It started in the Randwick Rail Workshops & Eveleigh Carriage Workshops & quickly spread to other industries until about 100,000 workers were on strike

Letter from International Class War Prisoners Aid National Office, 30 January 1932

Great Depression: Bankstown Riot, 1931

On June 17, 1931, a riot broke out in Bankstown, Sydney, in protest of rent evictions taking place during the Great Depression. Seventeen men were arrested for serious affray, and sixteen of them received sentences of hard labor in prison

A collection of old printed documents

Cummeragunja Walk Off

The Cummeragunja Walk Off which began in February 1939 has been described as the first ever mass strike of Aboriginal people in Australia. It brought about changes to the Aborigines Protection Act of NSW