Sons of the Southern Cross (sunshine on a gloomy September Sunday)

1st October 2006, Day 194

Ballarat, Victoria

'Beg not of England the right to preserve ourselves,
Fling out the flag of the Southern Cross,
We are the servants best able to serve ourselves,
Fling out the flag of the Southern Cross.
What are our hearts for, and what are our hands for?
What are we nourished in these southern lands for?
Fling out the flag of the Southern Cross.'
- Henry Lawson , 1887

It's been about three weeks since I last posted anything, but I have been busy beavering away in the background (dig the alliteration, or gnaw it if you prefer the metaphor). Whilst I work on producing my main post concerning climate change here's little something else.

Times-they-are-a-changing. After over two months in Melbourne and seven weeks of employment another chapter of our travels is nearing completion. In truth, James got pretty sick of Melbourne, and made the right decision to move out of the flat and explore pastures new - Tasmania - which gives me plenty of space and time to tie up a few of my own loose ends. It's worked out conveniently for both of us. Aside from working in recent weeks we've been sorting out arrangements for South America, which feels like a bit of a rush considering that we've seen nothing of much of Australia and we have a fortnight in New Zealand to plan.
Now that I've finished work, I'm planning to fit in the volunteer work I'm doing for Greenpeace and Environment Victoria with seeing as much of Victoria as I can. I'm hoping James will be back by next weekend so that we can travel to Great Ocean road and go for a hike in the Dandenong mountains. If there's time I'd like to see some of the old growth forest in East Gippsland. That should take up a fortnight, before we head back to Sydney and hopefully check out the Blue Mountains.

It is true that time is against us now, we are past our halfway marker of six months. I would have liked to have celebrated this in style, but sadly we were in a naff bar-come-club in St Kilda which didn't help improve James' mood. I'm quite sad to think we're 'over the hump'. Already I'm having to confirm with work exactly when I'll return. It's up to me to make sure I have grown from this experience and that I have a plan when I get home to take me into my thirties.

We did get around to leaving Melbourne for while a few weekends ago, which we'd planned to do for ages.

Gold

A large part of Victorian history, and Australian history for that matter, is gold mining. It was not until the 1850's that first gold mining began ushering in a huge gold rush across Australia, predominantly in Victoria. This jump started Australia's now hurculean extractive mining industry which is a major pillar of Australia's wealth, although now the main resource is coal with a horrendous side industry of uranium.

How to get a handle on this? We chose Ballarat rather than other former gold mining towns like Bendigo because a) it was easy to get to, b) the Lemonheads wrote a song about it and c) it was the site for Australia's only armed civil uprising; the Eureka Stockade. I was interested in this from a trade union perspective.

The stockade was a battle between miners and the state. 22 miners were murdered standing up to the private army of the Victorian colony, which enforced the payment of the 30 shilling miner's license. Supposedly the event helped to shape the celebrated Australian fair-spirted attitude and kick started the process of divorcing Australia from Britain, setting it on the road nationhood. Indeed it is held by some historians to be the birth of Australian democracy. The Eureka flag under which those miners rallied is the flag at the top of the post. It deliberately omits the Union flag, but embraces the Southern Cross constellation which you can see clearly in the southern hemisphere night sky.

The history goes that when the gold rush began it was an immigrant free-for-all with all men regardless of class or creed competeing for the same bounty. There were a large proportion of Chinese and continental Europeans as well as British and Irish.

I've lifted the following section from Wikipedia to explain how the fledgling Victorian colony responded to this influx:

'The roots of the Eureka Stockade uprising lay in the inability of a fledgling colonial government to cope with the new demographics of the colony. From being the administrative body of the "squattocracy" the government suddenly found itself unprepared to take charge of a large and unruly population of itinerants. Its response was to impose an unofficial martial law, enforced by the hurriedly assembled and quasi-military "Gold Commission." That many of the newly-arrived miners regarded the Victorian authorities as close associates of the "English" authorities was the first portent of conflict.'

The Ballarat Reform League was established in response to the imposition of the exhorbitant license, the cost of mining equipment, unfair treatment and arrest of some miners enforced by the first Victorian Governor, Sir Charles Hotham. Inspired by European chartism, the League united the diggers and fought for:

- Manhood suffrage (the right for all men to vote)
- Abolition of the property qualifications for members of parliament
- Payment of members of parliament
- Voting by secret ballot
- Short term parliaments
- Equal electoral districts
- Abolition of diggers and storekeepers licenses
- Reform of administration of the gold fields
- Revision of laws relating to Crown land

After weeks of gathering anger at their plight, the diggers asked to negotiate directly with Hotham. The political pressure the League exerted on Hotham eventually achieved a discussion between the Ballarat Reform League and the Victorian governor. At this meeting Hotham arrogantly refused to take the League's major 'asks' seriously which ended with the leadership of the League changing. Militant Peter Lawlor promised to make the livelihoods of miners improve by whatever means necessary.

Eventually the lines were drawn and a militia was cobbled together by Lawlor and the Reform League. Despite make-shift training, when the battle between Governor Hotham's forces and the workers occured at a hastily constructed stockade it was completely one-sided. Hotham's forces deployed sophisticated strategy, espionage and well-equipt forces against a rag-tag rabble. The battle occured on 3rd December 1854, and lasted not much longer than 15 minutes. Due to the barbarity of the Government forces and the supporting British army, 22 diggers were killed at the scene or died later from their injuries. Governor Hotham didn't even gain in the short term from the blood on his hands. A public outcry led to a commision, described by wikipedia below:

'A Commission of Enquiry into the affair was organised, and was scathing in its assessment of all aspects of the administration of the gold fields, and particularly the Eureka Stockade affair. The gold licences were abolished, and replaced by an inexpensive annual miner's licence and an export fee based on the value of the gold. Mining wardens replaced the gold commissioners, and police numbers were cut drastically. The Legislative Council was expanded to allow representation to the major goldfields and Peter Lawlor and John Basson Humffray were elected for Ballarat. After 12 months all but one of the demands of the Ballarat Reform League had been granted. Lalor and Humffray both led distinguished careers as politicians, with Lawlor later elected as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Victoria.'

The stockade is broadly accepted as a part of the spirit of independence which spread throughout Australia and which eventually lead to the six colonies federating and the Commonwealth of Australia being formed on 1 January 1901, and therefore nationhood. But was this a genuine workers revolt, throwing off encroaching tentacles of the empire, or small businessmen standing up to state taxation? With hindsight were they replacing the tyranny or the empire with a new state oppression? I think it's most likely they were guided by personal interests with a sympathy for their fellow worker and deep mistrust of their supposedly benevolent empire. In historical terms it's just another example of the power of worker's unity and it's achievement, whether that be through violent or non-violent means. Mark Twain visited Victoria in 1895 and had this to say on the matter:

"By and by there was a result, and I think it may be called the finest thing in Australian history. It was a revolution - small in size, but great politically; it was a strike for liberty, a struggle for principle, a stand against oppression....It is another instance of a victory won by a lost battle. It adds an honourable page to history: the people know it and are proud of it. They keep green the memory of the men who fell at the Eureka stockade."

The Eureka stockade was probably the start of Australian Trade Unionism. Listing the kinds of indivdual workers rights and workplace improvements won by Australian Trade Unions over the years would take a long while but this ACTU web page gives you an indication of some wins. Australia's Industrial Relations laws are not so healthy today, in fact they have been decimated by the WorkChoices legislation introduced by the Howard Government at the end of last year. The new business powers came into effect this March. Despite a major campaign opposing the legislation by the Australian Council of Trade Unions - the equivalent of our TUC - and a national day of action which brought over half a million Aussies onto the streets (and bear in mind this is a country of just 20 million), Howard pressed on and managed to get the legislation through. John Howard was aided in passing the laws by the government spending $45.6 million of tax payer's money on running a pro-legislation counter campaign, backed up with $6 million from the Business Council of Australia which is the equivalent of the Confederation of British Industry in Australia. In some ways the legislation could be considered even more reactionary than the First Employment Contract proposed and eventually withdrawn by de Villepin in France earlier this year after the country exploded in riots. Here are some of the major points of WorkChoices:

-the exemption of companies with fewer than 101 employees from unfair dismissal laws

-the exemption of all companies from unfair dismissal laws where a dismissal is for a bona fide operational reason

-increased restrictions on allowable industrial action

Here's what some of this means in reality. As long as a business can justify that cutting it's staff bring any benefit to it's prospects and shareholders, it can sack staff almost willy-nilly. Those employees working for small employers - the companies outside the control of unfair dismissal laws - are very much as mercy of their bosses, who will be able to exert severe pressure and control over them. In general there will be far more workers on Australian Workplace Agreements which are prefered by management, rather than collective agreements (a typical divide and rule tactic). The 'increased flexibility' of the new deregulated workforce means creating 70,000 extra job according to John Howard, although a statement was subsequently issued by 151 academics (based in economics, business, law and industrial relations) which argued that not only was there little evidence to suggest this, and actually much evidence that directly contradicted the Government's claims.

Some employers seem to think they can really get away with a total amnesty on employment law. Allegedly Heinemann Electrics withheld one weeks pay for their employees recently, after the workers had refused all over-time following a dispute over a new work agreement and hours. Supposedly Heinemann believe that under WorkChoices in addition to wqithholding workers pay during industrial action that they can determine how much they might withhold for work! All rather gloomy, isn't it? :(

In the aftermath, still the ACTU continues it's 'Your Rights at Work' campaign to try and overturn the legislation, which will require at least a change of government or wide civil unrest to precipitate.

The tension in France (First Employment Contract), Australia (WorkChoices) and Britain (Local Government retirement at 65 rather than 60/civil liberty eroding legislation), seem to stem from two conservative policy streams: economic viability and constriction of civil liberties. Neo-liberal policies don't work if you can't attract major investment to your country from multinationals. The only way to do this is by making your work force attractive ie. low minimum wage, limited right to industrial action, one where the public sector's terms and conditions do not show up the private sector's. After hard fought legislation won over the years by workers, only a major policy reversal such as those proposed by the First Employment Contract and introduced by WorkChoices are likely to achieve this in the short time frame available to win investment when emerging industrial powers like China and India are increasingly attractive.

After what has been achieved by unions in the intervening years I reckon those men who died at the stockade would have been proud at what ordinary men and women have achieved if they could have looked into the future, but sad that the tide seems to be turning in the other direction.

So that's the serious part. As you'd expect of James and I, we spent the best part of the weekend pratting around, not lamenting the state of industrial relations.

Ballarat felt like the Australia I had expected. Low-rise and sprawling, the wide streets emphasise the sheer space in this country. It wasn't the nicest weekend - windy and rainy - but as the wind whistled down the roads we felt more than an hour and a half's journey from Melbourne. Lydiard St is good example of the wealth accumulated by the town from gold mining reflected in it's beautiful Victorian architecture lining a route to the train station. It isn't quite like anything you'd find in Melbourne. After an hour and a half's wander around a surprisingly empty town centre late on Saturday afternoon, we lost our sense of adventure and had some grub. On the way I noticed a statue of Queen Victoria very similar to the one outside Windsor Castle. Following some pasta we felt thirsty and we went to a naff local pub called Irish Murphy's (!) on Sturt Street.

'I can't tell you how much you look like Mick Jagger. What's the time?'

As soon as we walked in the door we were greeted by an Aussie characature wanting to buy us both a drink. This bloke was obviously a little worse for wear, but we gladly accepted his kind offer and sat down for a chat. The bloke was at the stage of drunkeness where he was making all sorts of assumptions before actually finding anything out about us. Firstly he was under the impression we'd just set foot on Australian soil, and once we told him we'd spent two months in Melbourne he thought we'd tricked him in to buying us 'welcome beers'. This was not a big problem as we soon returned the favour. Secondly despite us telling him repeatedly that we had work, he insisted that we go and speak to 'Greg Crosby at McCain's' (yes, the people who make oven chips) to find ourselves some generously paid work. He was certainly full of drink-fuelled enthusiasm, which James and I played up to asking for him to show us 'the real Australia' and other cliched traveller aspirations. Despite being a little bit negative about Ballarat, he spinned a few good yarns about the kind of scenery that there is in Victoria out there for the viewing. After another drink he was repeating himself. For instance he was continually asking the time and declaring that James was the spitting image of Mick Jagger at which I was finding it hard to contain my mirth. Another stage of inebriation was passed when he felt assured enough to admit that he 'had a lot of anger inside him', which set the alarm bells ringing. This - to be fair - we'd anticipated from the moment we joined him. It's not the first moment we've had where you are getting on famously with someone and then they come out with something offensive which ruins it. We thought, 'sod it, it's Saturday night, lets just see where this goes'. I think if I worked in the McCain's factory for a living I'd have a lot of anger inside me aswell. Once he started stroking James' ear, however, we decided that this was a little too matey for our liking and that we'd better find somewhere else to drink. No need. The bloke unceremoniously shouted something inaudible, partially fell off his stool and buggered off. It was an interesting night out with the first person we'd spoken to in Ballarat.

Here I am panning for gold at the Sovereign Hill outdoor museum - a mock-up Victorian gold mining town sited on a former mine. Sovereign Hill is a tribute to all of Victoria's gold mines but specifically the Eureka Stockade which occured very nearby; it holds a sound and light show each night named 'Blood on the Southern Cross', which recreates that short but carnage filled battle.

After we got inside the park a spell of torrential rain which meant that we had to hide among the pretend stores, tents and wooden infrastructure for shelter. Gingerly emerging for a coffee the weather cheered up and we got up to all manner of 1850's high jinx: panning for gold, a tour of an old gold mine, seeing a $50,000 live gold pour and so on. There was a fantastic tradtional Victorian street which included hotels, bars, banks, investment houses, schools, bakeries, sweet shops, a wheelwright and a blacksmith all to some degree functioning and staffed by actors in period garb. I would have loved it as a kid and it was pretty good as a 26 year old man.

In truth, we didn't learn a great deal more about gold mining after the introductory museumy bit because we were happy strolling around the park, visiting the Victorian-era shops and streets and laughing like drains at our own stupid jokes. After six months I'm pleased to say that the quintessential Aussie quality 'mateship' is still alive and well between me and James.

In retrospect last weekend really cheered us up again, mainly because we got out of Melbourne and started exploring again. It's a new chapter now that I've packed up work here.

The southern hemisphere awaits Mr. Asker and I - now is the time to hit the road. Always exploring with the Southern Cross above us for inspiration, I escape the office cell once more. Hurrah!