Working Conditions in Australia at the
turn of the century
• You are to read through the following slides
• Take any notes in your work book and
summarise each pages notes in 1 to 2 easy to
remember sentences
• Concentrate on the main issues on each page
• Answer the questions and research questions
as you come across them.
Working Conditions in the 1900s
• Many reforms introduced by colonial
governments were ignored by employers
• Long hours
• Little pay
• Fear of being sacked for complaining
• No government protection
• Retire without superannuation
Web Quest Activity
On the internet look up
• 8 hour day factory girls
Answer the following
1. Describe the illustration
‘The factory girls of
Melbourne’
2. Why was factory work more
attractive than domestic
service?
Click the link Children
3. How did children’s health
suffer?
Search these keywords
• Women transported
National Archives Australia
3. Write down 3 interesting
facts about Australian female
convicts
4. Browse through the primary
sources (find the oil painting of
Port Macquarie)
Factories
• In the cities a large percentage of people worked
in factories
• Some workers were treated like slaves
• Factories with no toilets, no windows
• Temperatures could reach over 40 degrees in
summer
• Working hours from 8 am – 6 pm
• Work sometimes continued to 10pm without
extra pay
• Most workers walked home, some for 5 km
Working in Factories
• Describe the conditions shown in this source.
Why might conditions like these lead to health
problems?
Labourers
• Dangerous sites
• Without safety regulations
Shops
• Hours 9 am to 9 pm on weekdays
and 9 – 11pm on Saturday
• Not permitted to sit down
Labourers
What are the main
differences
between this
worksite and
modern worksites
today???
Child Labour
• Even though school was compulsory, it was
common for children as young as eight to work in
factories, textile mills and in the boot trade
• Most would work 60 hr weeks from 7 am – 6pm
• Young children used because:
- They were cheap labour
- Could clean the spaces in machines that were to
small for adults (dangerous and some were killed)
• Paid 2cents for an hours work compared to
4cents for women
• Poor parents relied on children working to
provide enough money for the family
Female Servants
• In 1901 over 20% of all workers were women
• Most of these female workers were unmarried
• Domestic servants who worked as maids, servants or
cooks
• Pay ranged from 14 shillings a week for a housemaid
and 25 shillings a week for a cook
• Some ‘lived in’ and were well treated
• Some bosses took advantage of female servants, some
servants were seduced and became pregnant, they
were then sacked and thrown out with no support.
Domestic Labour
• Look up domestic labour at the turn of the
century
• Fine and make note of 4 main points about
domestic labour.
• Eg. Hrs, pay, conditions etc
Rural Workers
• Badly treated
• Under contract paid one pound per month for
every one hundred sheep shorn
• If the boss was unsatisfied he simply refused to
pay
• Buy supplies of the boss often at inflated prices
• Strikes in 1890s to protest their conditions that
were violent
• See sources on Page 14 of text.
Melbourne: 8 Hour Day March c.1900
8 Hour Day Marches
• Using the preceding images as reference's
research the following
• What were the marches?
• Were they successful?
• When and where did they take place?
• Who participated in them?
• Was anybody opposed to the marches?