THIS coming May 1 (May Day) will mark the 80th anniversary of the commencement of the historic Pilbara Strike. 

Starting in 1946 and officially ending in 1949, the strike involved some 800 Aboriginal workers who walked off more than 20 pastoral stations. 

It remains the longest recorded strike in Australian history. 

The strikers’ demands were straightforward: a 30 shilling per week minimum wage, the right to elect their own representatives and freedom of movement. 

However, the Pilbara strikers defied not only pastoral station bosses by demanding better wages and conditions, but also a regime of colonial servitude underpinned by Western Australia’s Aborigines Act 1905. 

After the strike, much of the workforce never returned, instead building self-sufficient communities through co-operative mining ventures. 

Though now regarded as a historic event, the Pilbara Strike’s Fremantle connection has received little mention in recounts of the strike’s history.

In mid-1949, members of the Fremantle branch of the Seamen’s Union imposed a ban on the shipment of wool from stations where “slave conditions” applied. 

Their intent was to hit squarely at the hip pockets of Pilbara’s woolgrowers. 

By most accounts they succeeded.

At the strike’s commencement, strike leaders Clancy McKenna and Dooley Bin Bin were arrested for the “crime” of enticing others to strike. 

Their gaoling aroused condemnation in Perth, where a mass meeting on Perth Esplanade condemned the Labor state government. 

It was followed by the formation of the Committee to Defend Native Rights, which set about organising legal support, collecting strike funds and raising awareness. 

A public meeting at Fremantle’s Victoria Hall rallied support for the strikers, addressed by Don McLeod, the strikers’ representative in their dealings with the Department of Native Affairs. 

McLeod was a member of the Australian Workers Union (AWU) and, though a jack of many trades, settled into work as a lumper on the Port Hedland wharf during the dispute: a role that was invaluable in winning support for the wool ban later on. 

Not only were town centres off limits to Aboriginal people, but non-Aboriginal people were barred from entering Aboriginal town camps. This enforced segregation meant the Pilbara strikers frequently fell afoul of the law. 

McLeod was arrested for entering a “native camp” several times during the course of the dispute.

Aboriginal strikers faced worse. Not only were their strike camps denied post-war rations – an attempt to starve them out – but their leaders were routinely gaoled and chained.

While numerous trade unions supported the strikers, AWU secretary Charlie Golding sided with the pastoral station owners. 

Golding denied Aboriginal strikers AWU tickets, and thus opportunities to work alongside the non-Indigenous lumpers on Port Hedland wharf. 

According to Golding, the strikers were dupes of the “communist” Don McLeod.

McLeod, however, was not perturbed. 

Instead, he turned to Fremantle Seamen’s Union secretary Ron Hurd for assistance, seeking a ban on shipments of wool from Pilbara stations.

The Seamen’s Union had a reputation for militancy and solidarity with other workers’ struggle. 

Hurd had fought with the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War.  

Fremantle seamen had, between 1946 and 1949, imposed bans on Dutch shipping in solidarity with Indonesia’s independence movement. 

They were supported in these actions by the Coastal Dock Rivers & Harbour Works Union, led by Fremantle icon, Paddy Troy.

Gaoled

When 43 strikers were gaoled in April 1949, Hurd assessed the time was right to impose a black ban on the shipment of wool from Pilbara stations to demand the release of the gaoled strikers and wages on parity with those paid at Mount Edgar, which had already conceded to strikers’ demands. 

His members strongly supported the proposal at a Fremantle stop work meeting. 

For two months, the threat of a wool ban lingered. 

The gaoling of 10 more strikers at Nullagine proved to be the last straw. 

The ban began on July 1, when the SS Dorrigo bypassed Port Hedland after its crew refused to load the banned wool.  

On July 16, when the SS Kybra docked at Port Hedland, its crew similarly refused to load wool bales sitting on the dock.

Their employer declared the strike illegal and began fining the crew. 

At this point, AWU Secretary Golding intervened, directing his members working on the dock not to support the ban. 

However, McLeod and his supporters proved persuasive enough to ensure the wool bales sat idle on the Port Hedland wharf for a further two days. 

Following an assurance from Native Affairs official Sydney Elliott-Smith that Aboriginal pastoral workers would commence receiving union rates of pay, the ban was lifted. 

However, the Native Affairs Minister subsequently told state parliament that Elliott-Smith had no authority to set wage rates for Aboriginal workers. 

Nevertheless, the solidarity action taken by the Seamen’s Union proved significant. 

By mid-July, gaoled strikers had all been released. 

Over the following months, most Pilbara stations conceded to the strikers’ demands. 

Over three years of tenacious struggle, the Pilbara strikers inspired further struggles for Aboriginal rights across the country.

Remembering the Strike – a celebration of the 80th anniversary of the 1946 Pilbara Strike – will take place at Freo Social May 3, following the annual May Day rally and march. The concert will feature Shane Howard performing alongside Fremantle favourites Lucky Oceans, David Hyams, Roy Martinez and Todd Pickett. Also on the bill are David Milroy – a Paylku man with family connections to the Pilbara – performing with Dave Johnson and David Hyams, and the Yurti Band from Strelley station, who will perform their unique blend of blues and desert rock in their Nyangumarta language.

Tickets available at https://www.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/remembering-the-strike-featuring-shane-howard-goanna-band-and-more/191186