Deposit E185 - Amalgamated Engineering Union, South Australian Branches deposit 1

Established in 1851, the original Amalgamated Engineering Union was a branch of the British union. It was registered with the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Court in 1905 and became known as the Amalgamated Society of Engineers. In 1920 it amalgamated with ten other engineering and allied trade unions and changed its name to the Amalgamated Engineering Union, Australian Section in 1921. In 1968 the union became autonomous from its parent body in Britain, shortening its name to the Amalgamated Engineering Union to reflect this. In mid-June 1972 the AEU began a series of amalgamations with the Sheet Metal Workers, Blacksmiths & Boilermakers and Federated Jewellers to form the Amalgamated Metal Workers' Union by 1973.

The Boilermakers' and Blacksmiths' Society of Australia was formed in 1965 when members of the deregistered Blacksmiths' Society of Australia joined the Boilermakers' Society of Australia. In 1973 it joined the Amalgamated Engineering Union and the Sheet Metal Workers to form the Amalgamated Metal Workers' Union.

The Boilermakers' Society originated directly from the Federated Society of Boilermakers & Iron Shipbuilders of Australia which was registered federally in 1911, and became the Federated Society of Boilermakers Iron Shipbuilders & Structural Iron & Steel Workers of Australia in 1929. By 1937 the union had become the Boilermakers' Society of Australia. In 1965 the members of the deregistered Blacksmiths' Society of Australia joined the union and it became the Boilermakers' and Blacksmiths' Society of Australia.

The Boilermakers' Society of Australia, Adelaide Branch was originally the United Society of Boilermakers and Iron Shipbuilders of South Australia founded on 31 August 1880 at Port Adelaide (Glanville) and called the Port Lodge. Another branch was established in Adelaide on 21 December 1882. By 1911 it had become the Adelaide branches of the Federated Society of Boilermakers and Iron Shipbuilders Society of Australia, a predecessor to the Boilermakers' Society of Australia.