Company and labour loyalties in a Central Queensland gold mining town, 1882 to 1908

In 1905 the famous British socialist Tom Mann conducted his extensive investigation of the state of union organisation of Australia and New Zealand. In the North Queensland goldmining towns of Charters Towers Mann found the movement at a 'low ebb', but at Mount Morgan in Central Queensland it was nonexistent. One man he met reported that he was a member of the Rockhampton branch of the carpenters 'but I don't know of any other member of any union in Mount Morgan'. At first glance it would seem that Mount Morgan offered little cause for celebration for the labour movement. The Mount Morgan Gold Mining Company, which owned and mined the great orebody, was a powerful force in local society as was the staff who occupied crucial senior positions in the firm. But on closer inspection, as this article shall detail below, it is possible to discern a 'labour interest' emerging from the political contests for the local electorate of 'Fitzroy' and in the move of local working class candidates into municipal politics