NRS-15309 | Photograph album of Eveleigh Workshops during the 1917 railway strike

W.J. Ellis donated this photographic album to the Chief Commissioner of Railways James Fraser. The photographs provide a record of Eveleigh Workshops during the 1917 Railway strike. The Chief Commissioner of Railways was to describe the industrial action taken by railway and tramway employees as being of a "more serious magnitude than any previously occurring in the State". (1)The strike, which was called to protest over the introduction of a new card system to record work at the Randwick Workshops and Eveleigh Carriage Shops, lasted from 2 August 1917 to 8 September 1917 with a "considerable section of the employees" ceasing work. "Many, however, remained loyal, and, with the assistance of the members of the public, both male and female, generously and voluntarily tendered, Railway and Tramway Services were maintained and improved from day to day". (2)The album depicts the community of the "loyal" or "loyalist" individuals who were prepared to cross the union picket line to live and work on railway premises during the strike. They are shown at work, coming off shift, waiting for dinner, relaxing, at the "Camp Tobacco Shop", attending the "Barbers in the Paint Shop", or going to the "loyal theatre". This stopgap workforce was drawn from apprentices, clerical officers, coal fillers, kitchen and waiting staff, locomotive drivers, sub foremen, and their wives. (3) The album also provides a series of patriotic pictures (in some cases predating the strike) covering wives making comforts for soldiers at the front, ANZAC Day and Roll of Honour commemorations, welcome home ceremonies for returning veterans, collections for the Belgium Relief Fund, and the First Railway Unit on the eve of its departure for active service. (4) Custody HistoryW.J. Ellis donated this photographic album to the Chief Commissioner of Railways James Fraser.Custody HistoryFrom 1955 until 2000 the State Rail Authority of New South Wales maintained an ‘in house archives’ consisting of the archival records of the Authority, its predecessor agencies and the private railway companies taken over by the government. The date ranges of the records were from 1849 until 2000. When the decision was made to close the ‘State Rail Archives’ the parts of the collection that were required as State archives were transferred to the State Records Authority of NSW. Those record series were incorporated into the State Records series system of archives control and were re-numbered.This series was formerly part of the State Rail Archives collection where it was identified as series R92. It may have been viewed in the State Rail Archives as series R92 and could have been previously cited as such in notes by researchers at State Rail Archives or in publications or unpublished works.FOOTNOTES (1) NRS 15070 48 New South Wales Government Railways and Tramways Report of the Commissioners for the year ended 30 June 1918, page 22(2) Ibid page 22(3) NRS 15309 1 Photograph album of Eveleigh Workshops during the 1917 railway strike(4) Ibid NRS 15309 1 Photograph captions