ABSTRACT
Australia was of course a long distance away from Germany and those who could claim to have been there were in a better position to substantiate their interpretation. To understand the Australian workers’ attitudes towards unions and politics, one needs to look back a little into their history. When the goldfields were discovered in 1851, there came into the country a large number of people in their prime, enterprising and strong. The ships that brought immigrants also brought certain goods which flooded storehouses. In many trades there was no employment to be had because everything was bought ready-made, and so the workforce went to the goldfields; as long as there was gold in the ground, most diggers could earn a living and there was always the hope of getting rich with a big find. During 1850s, mainly builders’ labourers and those of associated trades were finding work in the cities with a wage of from 20s to 30s a day.
