ABSTRACT
In Sydney, the building industry was one of the colony’s largest; in 1894 it was estimated to comprise at least 15,000 men, of whom 20 per cent belonged to a union. 1 Unions had been made legal entities in 1881 and the building trades had been among the first to register. 2 Unions, or branches of unions, could be formed with as little as seven members. There were unions of the skilled trades such as the stonemasons, bricklayers, carpenters, plumbers, gasfitters, galvanised iron workers and slaters, the finishing trades such as the painters and plasterers, and the unskilled trades of labourers and quarrymen. 3
