Identity area
Reference code
AU NBAC N38
Title
Date(s)
- 1880-1981 (Creation)
Level of description
Deposit
Extent and medium
49.2 m
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
The first seamen’s unions in Australia were formed in Melbourne (1872) and in Sydney (1874). In 1876 the Melbourne Seamen’s Union and the Sydney Seamen’s Union amalgamated and, by 1880, there were seamen’s unions in all the eastern and south-eastern colonies of Australia as well as in several ports in New Zealand. The Federated Seamen's Union of Australasia was registered in 1906 under the Commonwealth's industrial relations legislation and, in 1907, Head Office was transferred from Melbourne to Sydney. Although the Federated Seamen's Union of Australasia was deregistered in 1925, in 1930 many of its members went on to form the Seamen's Union of Australasia which, in 1943, became the Seamen’s Union of Australia. Despite amalgamations with the Marine Cooks, Bakers and Butchers' Association of Australia in 1983, the Federated Marine Stewards and Pantrymen’s Association of Australasia in 1988 and the Professional Divers' Association in 1991, it remained the Seamen's Union of Australia until 1993 when it amalgamated with the Waterside Workers' Federation to form the Maritime Union of Australia.
Repository
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Minutes of Committee of Management meetings, General Secretary’s correspondence, conference notes, reports, copies of minutes of Stopwork meetings and other miscellaneous papers, 1912-1941, including some correspondence and related papers of William Raeburn and Thomas Walsh; awards, arbitration papers and industrial agreements, 1915-1972; rule books 1880-1963; financial records and reports, 1920-1973; subject files, 1937-1979; administration files, 1956-1979; ship’s plans, 1951-1981; membership books, identity cards and discharge certificates, 1913-1971; SUA banner; press cuttings, 1908-1971; photographs, 1962-1982 (including a photograph of the South Australian Seamen’s Union banner, 1888); cartoons and sketches, posters; labour movement pamphlets and other printed material including New Zealand Seamen’s Union publications. Contains, also, EV Elliot’s notebooks, notes and diaries, 1938-1970 and some personal records of Sydney Branch Secretary, Barny Smith.
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Conditions of access and use area
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Researchers must sign an access agreement
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Item list
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Existence and location of copies
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Dates of creation revision deletion
Entered from deposit description, October 2012