It had ramifications for Goulburn, with many railway workers striking here. 

Goulburn District Unions and Unions NSW will be commemorating the centenary of this nation-changing event in Goulburn on August 26 with a dinner, a documentary and a short play. Carriageworks in Sydney will also hold an exhibition on the Great Strike, from July 15.

“Goulburn is historically a railway town, so many families in Goulburn are not far removed from the railway and had relatives working there,” Southern Tablelands Rail Users Group president Greg Price said. 

“This is an opportunity for those families to get a better understanding of what their family members went through at the time.

“They endured a great deal because many were dismissed and in a town like Goulburn, which was a huge railway town, it would have made it hard for them to obtain other employment.” 

Nationally, the strike’s political legacy changed NSW forever, with many railway workers turning to politics in the wake of the strike’s crushing defeat. 

In Bathurst, a union organiser at the time named Ben Chifley began a career in politics that would eventually take him all the way to the Prime Minister’s office in 1945.

Other railway workers also went on to make their mark in state and federal politics, including Joseph Cahill, who became Premier of NSW in 1952, and Eddie Ward, a federal Labor MP for 32 years and great uncle of Goulburn District Unions president Anna Wurth Crawford.

The strike had been coming for some time. It was the height of WWI and thousands of men had left the railways to fight and were not replaced. 

“Those left behind were working on reduced wages and conditions,” said former national secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, Roger Jowett. 

“It was a tinderbox waiting for a spark, and this came with the introduction of a time card system at the Eveleigh Railway Workshops on August 2, 1917,” he said.

When the card system was introduced, 1100 tramway workers and 5790 Eveleigh Workshop workers downed their tools and walked off the job. They were followed soon by railway firemen and locomotive engine drivers. 

The workers downed tools in protest against the card system, a new way of monitoring worker efficiency. During the ensuing six-week strike, an estimated 77,350 NSW workers across a range of industries walked off the job.

The government of the day inflamed the situation by refusing to negotiate and portraying the strikers as undermining the war effort and “being against King and country”. 

The strike ended after six weeks when the workers returned to work. As a result, 20 unions were de-registered and many of the strikers were blacklisted for many years.

To commemorate the event in Goulburn, a dinner will be held on August 26 in the Goulburn Workers Club auditorium from 6pm. 

Goulburn District Unions president Anna Wurth Crawford said there would be a talk on the history of the strike by Rodney Cavalier, who was Education Minister in the Wran Labor Government, as well as the screening of a documentary.

“Mr Cavalier is a great speaker, so we are grateful to have him give this address and Unions NSW have made a documentary, which runs for about 20 minutes and we will have that to show,” she said.

“A play will also be staged called ‘The 1917 Strike’ by PP Cranney. This play has been shown in Sydney and also will be shown at other places commemorating the strike around the state. It goes for about an hour.

“You will definitely get your money’s worth, with a talk, a documentary and play and a three-course meal. Period dress is optional.”

Mrs Wurth Crawford said the Great Strike changed the face of Australia by politicising the workforce and creating a generation of politicians, including her great uncle Eddie Ward. “He was the Member for East Sydney for 32 years and leader of the federal opposition until 1960,” she said. 

Tickets for the event are $75, from the Goulburn Workers Club.