John Merritt John Merritt i(6415280 works by)
Gender: Male
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 Shearers, Mountain Stockmen and the Australian Legend John Merritt , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Colonial History , vol. 10 no. 2 2008; (p. 59-72)

'The first thing I did when I began work on the Australian Workers' Union (AWU) was to re-read "The Australian Legend". This closer reading helped me develop a research program for the AWU's early years, when it was composed exclusively of pastoral industry workers. By 1907 the AWU was Australia's largest and seemingly strongest union, yet in that year it registered with the newly formed Commonwealth Arbitration Court. I became so interested in this apparent contradiction that I abandoned my plan to write about the large general union of the mid-twentieth century. The Making of the AWU (1986) ended with the AWU's second shearing award. The Union was then 'made', both in the sense of being firmly established and in the sense of having acquired its characteristic adherence to arbitration. There are differences between the shearers of "The Australian Legend" and the shearers of "The Making of the AWU".'

Source: Article abstract.
X