Issue No 34 | 08 October 1999 | |
HistoryThe Western ExpressBy Dr Patrick Bertola
- Curtin University West Australian historians are undertaking a project to chronicle that state's rich rail history.
In the wake of the successful 1997 national conference of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History hosted by the Perth Branch, members of the Committee discussed a number of ideas for future projects at their monthly meetings. They were particularly concerned to maintain the momentum that the conference seemed to have generated. At one of these discussions members' thoughts turned to the idea of taking up a suggestion from our President, John Gandini: that we consider a project of writing and recording histories of the government railway workshops at Midland. In mentioning that centre, John reminded us that at its height the workshops had employed close to 3,200 workers. That number alone made the entity the single largest industrial concern in WA. Indeed, from the time of their inception in Fremantle and subsequent relocation to Midland, the government railway workshops remained one of the most significant sites for the concentration of industrial labour in WA. Our reflections on the place of Midland in the history of labour in WA simply served to emphasise the breadth of its importance in WA history. For instance, we noted that the workshops were at the centre of a network of railway centres spread around the State. They served as the training ground for apprentices in a vast range of trades and, with other government works that employed relatively high proportions of apprentices, provided a pool of skilled labour for private capital in the State. Along with other state enterprises like the State Engineering Works, they were at the centre of industrial activity in WA for a very long time. During the Second World War the skills of the workers were employed in manufacturing munitions and in machinery maintenance work for the defence forces. In this way, the workshops made a huge contribution to the war effort. Of course, Midland's significance was all the greater if one includes in the description of the local economy the other industrial sites in the area: the Midland Railway Company, the brickworks, the livestock saleyards and abattoir, and the many other, smaller enterprises. For at least three reasons, then, one can argue that Midland Junction ought have a significant place in the industrial, social and cultural history of WA. First, the sheer extent of these sites where people laboured. Secondly, the great breadth of human social and cultural experience that was and is embedded in the lives of the people engaged in such labour. Thirdly, the extent to which the social and cultural dimensions of the lives of so many others were connected to, or shaped in some way, by the workshops and the other industries of Midland. What these activities point to is the enormous human history bound up with the workshops. Essentially, it is the history of a labouring class, of its managers, and of the community that grew up around this centre of rail and transport for the whole of WA. For instance, the scale and diversity of the workforce meant the workshops were a major site for the activity of several unions and the site in which many union leaders had their training. The importance of the workshops is magnified, too, when one considers its relationship to the local community for they were synonymous with Midland and nearby areas. The unique links between the community and the workshops can be seen in many ways: in the extent and passion with which the closure of the workshops in 1994 was felt, and continues to be felt in Midland and its surrounding area; in the local society and culture; and, in the multiplicity of ethnicities represented in the workforce and town. More broadly, icons like the 'Rattler' owed their existence to the labour force of the workshops. Having canvassed these and other thoughts, the Committee decided to do something more concrete and John Gandini and Neil Byrne organised a meeting of committee members, Society members, other interested people, and persons from the four unions representing workers at the workshops. At the first meeting in June 1998 many possibilities were canvassed. Out of the lively discussion grew several ideas: an oral history project, a community day at the workshops, and the development of a workshops collection of documents and the like that would be deposited at the Battye Library of Western Australian History. At succeeding meetings - alternately at the AMWU, the PTU, the ASU, and the CEPU - these ideas have coalesced to the extent that a group recently met with the Battye Library staff to develop a plan for collection. Two members have undertaken training in oral history work and will be part of a project to begin recording and to run a community oral history training session in the near future. As well, the President of the Shire of Swan, Mr Charlie Gregorini, officially launched the Project at Midland on 21 March, an occasion which included guided tours of some areas of the workshops and an exhibition of photographs and other material. What marks this project is the extent to which it is one that will be owned by the community. Not only will the community have a substantial input in terms of the archived material and the oral account, but it will also be directly involved through the recording of accounts and the archiving of the collection. The role of historians like myself will be to support this effort and to advise where needed so that the potential of people to make their own history is realised, at least in the sense of reconstructing narratives of their past and so 'emancipat[ing] the voiceless lost in time.' In co-ordinating the community involvement the project is fortunate to have John and Neil They have been tireless in their efforts and direction; but, importantly, that work has never overshadowed the very active involvement of a large number of different people and organisations. With such a model, this project has the potential to be unique in the extent to which it will develop from this community base. Equally, it will be unique in that it is a long overdue project broadly concerned with the history of the labouring class in a particular region. As such, it seeks to give voice to the experiences of those whose lives were so intimately bound up with the existence of the workshops. By- and-large, these people have been almost absent from political history and tend to appear in economic and social accounts as undifferentiated units - 'workers', 'labour', 'residents'. Certainly, their thoughts and concerns tend not to feature in conventional history 'because they live outside the charmed circle of literacy' that gives rise to the sorts of documents and records that many historians have relied on. The fact that this important project has only begun raises a number of questions about the progress of Western Australian history making to the present. The failure of historians to give adequate recognition to the significance of the former West Australian Government Railways/Westrail workshops at Midland might be the outcome of one of a number of factors. For instance it might simply be the outcome of a relatively small amount of historical writing on WA, though this is unlikely when one considers the rapid growth of the tertiary education sector from the late 1960s. Alternatively, it might be related to a somewhat myopic view derived from a conservative, even elitist, and certainly consensual view of society that would have excluded the consideration of the lives and culture of Midland - predominantly a labouring class area. Perhaps this view persists in some Western Australian history writing. However, after World War II there was a more general upsurge of interest in history that took account of those 'below':firstly in Marxian and neo-Marxian analyses, and then, in the 1960s and 1970s of what broadly was known as the 'new' social history. Arguably, in WA these developments should have led someone to focus on the workshops and on Midland. Certainly, the 'new' history in Western Australia led to an increased interest in feminist research, into thestudy of some localities, into a much needed study of questions to do with race and Aboriginal history, and, more recently, into the area of cultural studies. It seems, however, that the social and cultural history of labour did not feature greatly in these developments. Indeed, during the 1990s, there has been a tendency to discard or reject class and labour (including working class culture) as significant concepts in historical analysis. Moreover, the study of the working class has also suffered because of the more general attack on anything that might even remotely be 'tainted' by Marxian thinking: particularly, that sort of triumphalist conservatism that holds the break up of the Soviet Union as proof of the end of Marx's relevance. For whatever reason, the lives of that substantial mass of Western Australian humanity who worked and resided at the edge of the Darling Scarp just twelve miles from Perth seems consistently to have missed becoming part of the historical account. In this regard, the failure to draw the workshops and their community into the mainstream of Western Australia's historical narratives represents a significant deficiency. Of course, in referring to the mainstream of WA history, it should be remembered that there are a number of historians who have worked to lay accounts of working class life, work and culture before a broader audience. One can find representative examples in the work of people outside the academy like Joan Williams, Michal Bosworth or Bill Latter. As well, the Oral History Unit of the State Library and Stuart Reid have done much to ensure that oral accounts of WA working life remain. And in Midland, the Shire of Swan have maintained the position of a local historian who has also worked to retain documentary and oral records. Within the academy the work of a few historians - people like Charlie Fox,Lenore Layman and Janis Bailey, for example, ensures that the histories of that vast labouring majority of society are given scholarly attention. However, the balance is skewed; for if one looks at the sum of writing on WA, that which takes as its direct subject the many facets of the lives of labour is minuscule in comparison to that which does not. This project seeks to extend that focus on labour and its social and cultural history. The early objects are quite modest but the potential for extension is enormous. With the community support that it seems to have already generated, it may well become one of the most significant regional historical projects in recent times.
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