When a Union Badge Helped Bring Brisbane to a Standstill
What began with a group of tramway workers wearing union badges became one of the most significant industrial confrontations in Queensland history.
And at the centre of it was a seemingly simple question:
Could a worker openly identify themselves as a union member?
On 18 January 1912, employees of the Brisbane Tramways Company reported for work wearing their union badges.
The company's general manager, Joseph Stillman Badger, had prohibited employees from wearing union badges while on duty.
The workers refused to back down.
They were dismissed and their positions were re-advertised.
What followed quickly became much bigger than a dispute between tramway workers and their employer.
FROM TRAMWAY DISPUTE TO GENERAL STRIKE
The dismissal was seen by organised labour as an attack on the right of workers to belong to a union.
Support for the tramway employees grew rapidly.
On 30 January 1912, a general strike began, with 43 unions joining the action.
Brisbane was effectively brought to a standstill as the dispute spread beyond the tramways to other industries, including the railways.
The scale was extraordinary.
The State Library of Queensland records estimates of up to 25,000 demonstrators and 50,000 supporters at the height of the strike - in a state whose total population was only a little over 636,000.
The unions also established their own organisational machinery.
A Combined Unions Committee coordinated the strike, issued work permits and even introduced “Combined Strike Coupons” for use during the stoppage.
It also produced an Official Strike Bulletin to communicate the unions' version of events.
Queensland State Archives records that 77 bulletins were produced during the strike.
For a short time, Brisbane had something approaching a parallel system of industrial organisation.
BLACK FRIDAY
Then came 2 February 1912.
The strike committee had applied for permission to hold a procession through Brisbane, but Police Commissioner William Geoffrey Cahill refused the application.
The procession went ahead anyway.
Approximately 15,000 people gathered.
Police and special constables moved against the crowds, with mounted police using batons as demonstrators were pursued through Brisbane streets.
The day became known initially as “Baton Friday” and later, more commonly, as “Black Friday.”
Among those taking part was one of Queensland's best-known labour and women's rights campaigners:
Emma Miller.
EMMA MILLER AND THE HATPIN
Born in England in 1839, Emma Miller had already spent decades campaigning for workers' rights and women's political rights.
She had helped establish a female workers' union, given evidence to the 1891 Royal Commission into Shops, Factories and Workshops, and played a prominent role in Queensland's women's suffrage movement.
On Black Friday, Miller led a group of women towards Parliament House.
According to the historical account, when the women encountered police on their return, Miller used her hatpin against the horse ridden by Police Commissioner Cahill.
The horse reared and Cahill was thrown to the ground and injured.
It is one of the most famous stories from the strike — but there is an important qualification.
The Australian Dictionary of Biography describes the incident as “reputedly” happening, so while the story is well established in historical accounts, we should not present every detail as an independently proven fact.
THE GOVERNMENT FIGHTS BACK
Queensland Premier Digby Denham regarded the strike as a serious threat to public order.
The government recruited special constables and took increasingly strong measures as the dispute spread, particularly after railway employees joined the strike.
Denham even requested Commonwealth military assistance.
Federal Labor Prime Minister Andrew Fisher refused to send Commonwealth troops.
But the story takes an extraordinary turn.
According to Denham's biography in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, after the Commonwealth refused his request, Denham discussed with Governor Sir William MacGregor the possibility of landing troops from a German warship then off the Queensland coast to help maintain law and order.
The proposal was supported by MacGregor.
We have deliberately not identified the German vessel, because although the proposal itself is documented, we have not found sufficiently reliable evidence to establish the ship's identity.
THE END OF THE STRIKE
The strike continued for several weeks.
Queensland State Archives records that it officially ended on 6 March 1912, after the Employers Federation agreed that strikers would not be victimised.
The immediate industrial objective had not been achieved.
The consequences, however, were significant.
Following the strike, Denham's government introduced the Industrial Peace Act 1912, which established an Industrial Court and imposed significant restrictions on industrial action.
The strike also had major political consequences.
Denham went on to win the 1912 Queensland election, while Labor suffered significant losses in Brisbane.
AND WHAT ABOUT BOSS BADGER?
Joseph Stillman Badger was no ordinary company manager.
Born in the United States in 1851, he was an electrical engineer who came to Queensland in 1896 to help electrify Brisbane's tramway system.
He became general manager of the Brisbane Tramway Company and oversaw a major expansion of the electric tram network.
But he was also firmly opposed to trade unionism within the company.
His refusal to allow union badges on duty helped turn a workplace dispute into a much wider confrontation over the rights of organised labour.
And that is perhaps the most fascinating part of this story.
The Brisbane General Strike of 1912 did not begin with a demand for revolution or a fight over wages.
It began with workers wearing union badges.
But behind that small badge was a much larger question:
Who had the right to organise, speak collectively and stand together in the workplace?
For five weeks, that question brought Brisbane's industrial and political life to a standstill.
And more than a century later, the events of 1912 remain one of the defining chapters in Queensland's labour history.
With special thanks to Sheron Gaston for suggesting this story and inspiring us to explore it further.
SOURCES & FURTHER READING
• Queensland State Archives — Black Friday: Australia's first ever general strike • State Library of Queensland — Centenary of the General Strike of 1912 • State Library of Queensland — SLQ — a refuge from Black Friday • Australian Dictionary of Biography — Joseph Stillman Badger • Australian Dictionary of Biography — Emma Miller • Australian Dictionary of Biography — Digby Frank Denham • Australian Dictionary of Biography — William Geoffrey Cahill • Australian Dictionary of Biography — Andrew Fisher • University of Queensland / Queensland Journal of Labour History — research relating to the 1912 strike and Official Strike Bulletin
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A NOTE ON OUR VISUALS
To help bring this story to life, we’ve used a combination of colourised historical photographs from public-domain collections and computer-generated imagery.
Where historical photographs have been colourised, we’ve aimed to reflect the colours, clothing and settings of the period as accurately as possible. Our computer-generated images are illustrative and may contain minor inaccuracies or elements of artistic interpretation.
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