The society was in existence from at least 1890 and in 1892 led moves to form the Federated Building Trades Union with carpenters, plasterers and plumbers. In 1906 this union formally changed its name to the Painters and Decorators' Society of South Australia, and then became the South Australian branch of the Federated House and Ship Painters, Paperhangers and Decorators Association of Australasia in 1910.

The union was registered federally for the first time as the Federated House and Ship Painters Paperhangers and Decorators Employees' Association of Australasia in 1910, and by 1915 had changed its name to become the Operative Painters and Decorators of Australasia.

The Federated House and Ship Painters, Paperhangers and Decorators Employees' Association of Australasia became the Operative Painters and Decorators of Australasia in 1915. In 1918 it changed its name to the Operative Painters' and Decorators' Union of Australia. Seventy-five years later, the union amalgamated to form the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union in 1993.