ABSTRACT
This chapter examines organisation by whether it was formal or informal, involved convicts or free workers, by gender, industry, occupation and the issues/objectives involved. It also examines the origins of organisation in customary practices, labour market conditions and social networks. Informal organisation by free and unfree can be seen as an extension of far more numerous collisions between individual workers and employers in the courts, the first attempt to mount some countervailing power based on shared interests. Informal organisation typically involved fewer workers. Instances of informal organisation exceed formal organisation until 1868 and union numbers only surge in the 1880s. The vast majority of organisations were informal and short-lived. Another way of scoping organisation is the breakdown by industry, occupation and gender. Industry-patterns reflected the nature of colonial economies, including the dependence on maritime transport.
