In 2014, the City of Melbourne named Buluk Park, honouring the local Indigenous language, as ‘buluk’ means ‘wetlands or swamp’, a reflection of the original site. Once a large open space between Victoria Harbour and the Birrarung/Yarra, in the area now occupied by Docklands Library and Buluk Park, wharf workers gathered to be assigned work for various periods – days or sometimes weeks – and the area was occasionally the site for struggles and protests where aggrieved wharf workers would take collective militant action.

In April 1930, for example, when work was hard to find due to the depression, ‘a crowd of between 3000 and 4000 unionists and volunteers began ‘scuffling’ while offering themselves for work on the Ormiston, the Time, and the Goulburn. On 30 June 1971 Melbourne’s third anti-Vietnam war moratorium drew a crowd of at least 70,000 starting at North Wharf and marching into the centre of the city.

The powerful Waterside Workers Federation (WWF) was formed on 7 February 1902, shortly after Federation, when unions across the ports of the now-united country also federated to address common concerns more effectively. Two members would later be Prime Ministers – Billy Hughes and Andrew Fisher. Over the years the WWF absorbed the Permanent & Casual Wharf Labourers Union of Australia, merged with the Australian Foremen Stevedore Association, amalgamated with the Seamen’s Union of Australia to become the Maritime Union of Australia, and finally merged to become part of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union.

FURTHER READING

• Begg, J Proud to be a Wharfie Australian Scholarly Publishing 2014
• Australian Trade Union Archives ‘Waterside Workers Federation of Australia’
• https://atui.org.au/resource/maritime-union-of-australia-mua-here-to-stay-the-1998-waterfront-dispute/

IMAGE CREDIT
https://atui.org.au/resource/maritime-union-of-australia-mua-here-to-stay-the-1998-waterfront-dispute/