(Material researched & presented by Barbara Armstrong)

The Trades Hall building, home to the Victorian Trades Hall Council of trade unions, is located in Melbourne’s Victoria Street.  Following recent renovations, ornate wall plaques were discovered hidden under layers of paint.  These plaques are actually paintings, made to look like wooden commemorative boards.  There are plaques for each of Melbourne’s major hospitals and charities, including one for the Melbourne Homœopathic Hospital.  It contains the names of various people – not homœopaths, but people who were appointed each year as Life Governors of the hospitals and charities.

What is the story behind these plaques?

Melbourne Trades Hall - Entry Foyer

Photo courtesy of Peter Torokfalvy

After the discovery of gold, Melbourne started to grow at such a pace that it became the fourth-largest city in the British Empire.  The working conditions at that time involved about ten hours a day (plus two hours for meals) for six days a week.  On one extremely hot day in March 1856, the stonemasons working at the University of Melbourne marched to Parliament House to press their claims for an eight hour working day.  The catch-cry was that the ideal day should consist of eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, and eight hours for recreation.

After the claim was won, the unions celebrated the event with an annual Eight Hour Day parade and a fete, both of which drew crowds of thousands.  The day became a public holiday, and was eventually re-named Labour Day.

The Eight Hour Day pioneers were very serious about their claim that with more leisure time they would be free to engage in moral and social improvement.  The Trades Hall building became the focus of self-improvement activities such as educational work, discussions and the like.

Life Governors To The Homœopathic Hospital

Photo courtesy of Peter Torokfalvy

Successive members of the Eight Hour Day Committee established a magnificent tradition of fundraising and charity work.  They wanted to be thought of as more than just workers, but as leading participants in the community.  Profits from the annual procession, fete, and other fundraising activities, were divided between various charitable associations.  Many of these institutions depended for their income on subscriptions and donations.  In exchange for the donations, Life Governorships were offered.  These provided certain benefits such as a limited number of tickets for immediate treatment for themselves or a selected co-worker.

Prominent unionists were elected by the Eight Hour Day Anniversary Committee to be Life Governors.  They include names of saddlers, stevedores, brewers, tailors, etc.

The first name listed for the Homœopathic Hospital is William Trenwith, a Carlton bootmaker.  In 1884 Trenwith organized a bootmakers’ strike, which was an important campaign in the fight against sweated labour.

Trenwith became President of the Trades Hall Council in 1886, and appeared on the wall plaque as the first Life Governor of the Homœopathic Hospital in the same year.  He went on to become a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1889 to 1903, and later a Federal Senator.

©   Barbara Armstrong

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