Black and Red: The Pilbara Pastoral Workers’ Strike 1946

Abstract

For most of the period of white settlement in Western Australia the labour of Aborigines was an essential factor in rural production. This was especially true in the pastoral industry. Not only was it an industry based on the expropriation of Aboriginal lands by white settlers, it was also an industry largely maintained by the exploitation of cheap Aboriginal labour. Despite the fact that these workers had the reputation of being 'the best stockmen in the world' they were excluded from the provisions of industrial awards and worked and lived under conditions that would not have been tolerated by a white workforce. On 1 May 1946 workers on some two dozen stations in the Pilbara region struck. The degree of co-ordination and solidarity they displayed first amazed and then infuriated both the white pastoralists and their representatives in the State Government. While the mass media either ignored or condemned the strike, sections of the metropolitan labour movement sprang to the defence of the strikers and notable actions of solidarity were organised. The dispute took a number of turns with some employers agreeing to the conditions the workers sought. At one stage the State Government also agreed to substantial reforms but this was later withdrawn. Some workers returned to the industry but others decided that their withdrawal would be permanent.