Deposit Z586 - Australasian Coal and Shale Employees' Federation deposit 3

In 1916 the Australasian Coal Miners' Association changed its name to the Australasian Coal & Shale Employees' Federation. It operated until 1990 when it amalgamated with the Federated Mining Mechanics' Association of Australasia to form the United Mineworkers' Federation of Australia. Further amalgamations resulted in the Construction Forestry Mining & Energy Union in 1993.

This union was succeeded by the Federated Mining Mechanics' Association of Australasia which was formed in 1929 and continued till 1990.

The union merged with the Australasian Coal and Shale Employees' Federation in 1990 to become the United Mineworkers' Federation of Australia.

The union was registered on 5 November 1908. It succeeded the West Moreton District Miners' Union which had at that time over twenty branches in the Ipswich and Rosewood areas. Its first Secretary was David Gledson who became a member of the Queensland government in 1915 and later Minister for Mines and Attorney-General. The QCEU became the Queensland District of the Australasian Coal and Shale Employees' Federation from its formation in 1916 but maintained its separate status until it became part of the Mining and Energy Division of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union in 1992.

The Federated Engine Drivers' and Firemen's Association of Australasia dates back to local engine drivers' unions on Australian goldfields but was not registered federally until 1908. Predecessors include the Newcastle Colliery Engine Drivers' Union (1889-1921), the Newcastle Crane Employees' Union (1893-1915), the Shore Engine Drivers' and Firemen's Union of New South Wales (1901-1908), the Steam Crane Engine Drivers' Society of New South Wales (1901-1910), the New England Engine Drivers' Association (amalgamated in 1908), the Amalgamated Engine Drivers' Association of Tasmania and the United Certificated Engine Drivers' Association of Victoria. It was deregistered in 1949 but formed again in 1950 under the same name. It was amalgamated with the Construction Forestry and Mining Employees' Union and the Operative Plasterers' and Plaster Workers' Federation of Australia in 1992 to form the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union. The union represented engine drivers and firemen, crane drivers, dynamo and boiler attendants, forklift drivers and plant operators in hospitals, abattoirs, dockyards, brickworks, mines, power stations and factories.