☰Menu
Home // Stories // Working Life

Working life

Browse by
LIST
TIMELINE
LOCATION

Stories from the Forge

The heats reached in the forge were such that wood or bitumen would catch alight, and cement would shatter
View Story

Economising

In the days when labour was inexpensive and materials were expensive, to minimise waste, recycling and using every material to it’s fullest was normal.
View Story

Testing the limits

The CME’s Mechanical Branch carried out physical testing to get the most from a locomotive and to identify faults in rails, axles or wheels before they caused an accident.
View Story

The Chief Mechanical Engineer communications

The Chief Mechanical Engineer’s (CME) world was one without electronic communication to reach the thousands of staff working under him at every railway depot across the state.
View Story

The Chief Mechanical Engineer

The Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) managed the Mechanical Branch of the NSW Railways network from the Chief Mechanical Engineer’s Office on a hill overlooking the Eveleigh rail yards.
View Story

An all Australian triumph: The Governor general's carriage

The Eveleigh Workshops were a place of artistry as well as industry where many tradesmen took great pride in their craft.
View Story

You've had enough of hell

Work at Eveleigh was hard and workers relied on their wit to get them through tough times.
View Story

Time

As the trains ran to timetables, so did the working day at the Eveleigh Workshops. Whistles gave warning that it was time to ‘get ready to start work’, ‘start work’, ‘pack up tools’, ‘wash up and walk to the gate’ and finally, ‘time to leave’.
View Story

We all washed in buckets

Washing facilities at Eveleigh Workshops were primitive at best. Standard issue for workers was a bucket of water to wash up in with a fortnightly scoop of soft soap.
View Story

Strikes, Unions and Activism

Eveleigh workers fought the weekend off and the eight-hour day.
View Story
  • Plan of the Works Managers Office, south east and north east elevation, 23 March 1944 view

    1878

    The Work's Manager and Timekeeper's Office is erected.
  • Machines in locomotive workshops, undated view

    1880

    Prior to the 1880s railway employees formed benefit societies to help deal with accidents and deaths at work.

  • 1882

    First trade union action occurs at Redfern Railway Workshops, when the Boilermakers Union claims overtime. In Australia during the 1850s skilled workers in Sydney and Melbourne generally worked a 58 hour week: 10 hours per day Monday to Friday and 8 hours on Saturday.
  • The First Aid Station at Eveleigh Locomotive Shops which formed part of 'Red Square' where union meetings were often convened, undated view

    1882

    Railway Commissioner Charles Goodchap promotes first aid training and an ambulance corps is formed three years later.

  • 1886

    All-grades Railway and Tramway Union forms to fight against the abolition of breakfast breaks and management's withdrawal of free railway passes.

  • 1886

    Eveleigh men mobilise towards the establishment of the eight-hour day.

  • 1886

    Australian Railway and Tramway Service Association (ARTSA) is established by two porters who realise unskilled workers, like signalmen and guards, have issues which could be better resolved by a unified approach.

  • 1889

    The Labour Electoral League (Labor Party) is established by the Trades and Labour Council.

  • 1892

    Union negotiations lead to the workshops being closed on Saturdays.
  • Royal crest on side of Governor General's carriage, undated view

    1900

    Order for the Governor-General's carriage is placed at Eveleigh Railway Workshops.

Pages

Search form

© 2024 Australian Technology Park Heritage

✕
Browse stories...
An Indigenous Place

Eveleigh is Gadigal country. We acknowledge their ownership of this land and pay our respects to past, present and emerging elders.
The paddocks

The second half of the nineteenth century saw a rapid expansion in New South Wales railways. In Sydney, this meant both the early stations and workshop facilities quickly became too small, and had to be expanded or relocated.
VIEW ALL TOPICS >
Stories for...
An Indigenous Place
The paddocks
Like a living thing
View More >
Eveleigh stories in time...
40,000 BC

Pre contact – Members of Cadigal, or Gadigal, people inhabit Redfern, Erskineville and surrounds. The Gadigal Traditional Owners who today speak for the Sydney clan area stretched “from the south side of Port Jackson from South Head to Petersham”. The Gadigal people spoke the coastal Eora dialect of the Darug language and are often referred to as the Eora people. Redfern as a site was important to its people because it had a source of water – Shea's Creek, which today is Alexandra Canal, as well as a source of food from the wetlands that drained into the creek. Redfern’s high point on the terrain offered views of the trade route from Circular Quay to Parramatta, on which the colony’s first railway would be built. These trade routes connected with larger routes which linked the north and south, and east and west of Australia. Not only goods, but ideas, songs, ceremonies and news travelled along these routes.
1788

The British arrive in January with catastrophic effect on the Aboriginal way of life. The Eora people do not flee, as Captain James Cook predicted, but stand their ground. Governor Phillip attempts to create good relations, but these soon disintegrate due to the persecution of the Aboriginals by the convicts. The Aboriginals are pushed out of Sydney town with fear of being shot, and with the quick pollution of the Tank Stream by tanneries, they are forced to use water sources near Redfern.
1789

The smallpox plague devastates the Aboriginal people. Without immunity to the disease brought by the British, a large percentage of the Cadigal clan is wiped out. Following the plague, survivors from surrounding clans join together to survive, and to participate in the guerrilla movement led by Pemulwuy.
1791

James Chisholm arrives in the colony of New South Wales aged 19 as a non-commissioned officer.
1793

Settler David Collins observes Cadigal people performing a ceremony “between the town and the brickfield”.
FULL CHRONOLOGY >