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On 24th May 2009 marked the opening of the first trades hall building constructed in Carlton 150 years ago. A 'Celebratory Street Party' was organised to mark the occasion. Speeches from the Secretary, Brian Boyd and Labour Historian Carlotta Kellaway told of the role the building has played in the struggle for workers' rights over the last century and a half. Outgoing TH&LI President Anne Taylor of the AEU was honoured for her work and presented with a certificate by the ne President, Kevin Bracken of the MUA who also gave us some background of the campaign to establish the first purpose built trade union building in the world. A traditional Welcome to country was given by the One Fire indigenous dance troupe and music was provided throughout the evening by the Trade Union Choir and the Occulus String Quintet. In keeping with Trades Hall's role in supporting community endeavours, food was provided by Sorghum Sisters Catering. |
| A limited edition commemorative platinum badge was struck for the anniversary and is available from the Trades Hall for $10.00 |  |
TRADES HALLS 150th BIRTHDAY
(an edited version of an article from: The Recorder, Journal of the Melbourne Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, June 2009 by Dr Peter Love)
melbourne's Trades Hall is an imposing symbol of the labour movement's continuing campaign to civilise working life for ordinary people. Inspired by the 1856 campaign by Melbourne building workers for the Eight Hour Day, it was a tangible assertion of their determination to manage their own affairs as a movement, co-ordinate their campaigns and speak with a united voice on behalf of their members.
A Trades Hall committee was established in the wake of the 1856 campaign. In 1858 they were given a Crown Grant of one acre on the corner of Victoria and Lygon Streetts, carlton South. A modest timber building titled the Trades Hall and Literary Institute was constructed on the site in 1859 to house the Tardes hall Council.
The original hall was replaced, in stages, by the current assortment of buildings between 1875 and the mid 1960s.
On the evening of Sunday 24 may 2009 the Trades Hall and Literary Institute Trustees, VTHC office bearers and staff arranged a 150th birthday party for the Hall. The celebration took the form of a street party and dinner conducted on the steps of the main entrance and in a marquee erected on Lygon Street in front of the columned portico.
As invited guests assembled at about 6:00 pm there was talk of the Hall's colourful history as the home, at various times, of the Trades Hall Cuncil, most Victorian unions, the Victorian Branch of the ALP and the original offices of the ACTU. It was remembered as the base of the anti-conscription campaigns of the First World War, unemployment agitation during the 1930s depression, the home of the radio broadcast in which Australians first heard that the Second World War had ended, the epicentre of the factional explosion that split the labour movement in the 1950s, the base for the fight against penal powers in 1969, the rallying point for anti-Vietnam War demonstrations and many more recent campaigns. In keeping with its origins as a mobilisation of building workers in 1856, there were dark mutterrings about the dastardly doings of the ABCC on the night.
