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Trade Union entry Operative Masons Benefit Society (1850 - 1851)

From
1850
Victoria
To
1851
Functions
Trade Union (State or Territory only)

Summary

The first organisation of stonemasons in Victoria was the Operative Masons' Benefit Society which was formed in November 1850, but which went into recess the following year. The movement was revived as the Independent Society of Operative Stonemasons of Victoria in 1855. The union was later known as the Friendly Society of United Operative Stonemasons of Victoria, and as the Trade & Friendly Society of Operative Stone Masons of Victoria. Following the 1888 Intercolonial Trades Union Congress, a federation of the masons' societies of Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia was formed "to further the bonds of unity, and give its members privileges to retain benefits in removing from one colony to another..." Moves were begun in 1914 to create an Australian society of stonemasons with state branches but this was not achieved until 1918 with the formation of the Operative Stonemasons' Society of Australia, of which the Trade & Friendly Society of Operative Stone Masons' of Victoria became the Victorian Branch.

Archival resources

The Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU Archives Program

  • Operative Stonemasons Society of Australia - Records, 1850 - 1956, E117; The Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU Archives Program. Details

Ross G. Elford