Victorian Trades Hall Council. The voice of Victorian workers since 1856.

Genealogy Resources

Please note: The Trades Hall Archives are not kept at the VTHC Library. They were transferred to the University of Melbourne Archives in 1988 and are available for research there. Contact the University of Melbourne Archives on (03) 9344 6848 for details.

HOW TO IDENTIFY UNIONS AND UNIONISTS

The following research and secondary sources may be useful:

  • The Australian Trade Union Database 1825 - 1925: Research tool developed by Michael Quinlan and Margaret Gardner (ee Labour History No 66 May 1994 p 90-113.),
  • Parties to the Award Noel Butlin Archives Centre ANU 1994: Provides 42 “family trees” of unions from 1904 - 1994,
  • The Records of The Victorian Trades Hall Council: First accession 1857-1988 VTHC/UMA 1989: has an excellent union name index,
  • Union histories - ACTU/VTHC Library has a good collection,
  • “Merrifield cards”: biographical index at State Library of Victoria.Biographical Register of the Australian Labour Movement : research by Andrew Moore and John Shields: will contain entries for 2000 people who have made
    particular contributions to the labour movement up until 1975,
  • Gibbney, H J and Smith, Ann B (compilers/editors) Biographical Register 1788-1939: 2 volume work of those who didn’t get put into the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB),
  • Labour History: Journal of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History,
  • The Recorder: Melbourne Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History,
  • Labor Call “Official Organ of the Political Labor Council of Victoria” (Vol 1(1) Nov 1906- Vol 46 Sep 24 1953 - State Library holds,
  • Tocsin “the people’s penny weekly paper” (Oct 2 1897 - Dec 27 1906) - State Library holds,
  • Other newspapers, especially The Age, Argus, Herald - on microfilm at the State Library,

WEB RESOURCES
There are an increasing number of WWW sites, which assist in locating trade union and labour history records and other research sources. The following are some good starting points and most provide links to other relevant web sites.
The University of Melbourne Archives has a descriptive list of trade union related holdings at
http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/archives/archgen.html
The Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU Canberra has a guide to holdings at
http://anulib.anu.edu.au/nbac/
The Australian Society of Archivists maintains the Directory of Archives in Australia at
http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/asa/directory
The Genealogical Society of Victoria’s web site includes their comprehensive Library catalogue at
www.gsv.org.au
The National Library of Australia Manuscripts Section contains detailed finding aids to the NLA’s holdings of the personal records of significant Australians at
http://www.nla.gov.au/ms/
The Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts (RAAM) directs researchers to the locations of about 20,000 collections of primary source material at
http://www.nla.gov.au/raam/ 

WHO KEEPS UNION ARCHIVES?

Various archives began to actively collect union records in the 1960s.
The University of Melbourne Archives has over 100 union collections including the VTHC Archives.
The Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU Canberra, has over 200 union collections, including the ACTU Archives.
Union collections are scattered and sometimes split between institutions. For example, the Mitchell Library, Sydney holds part of the Trades Hall records because of historical accident.
Web resources will help you identify where the records are held and the appropriate repositories to approach.
Note that UMA and NBAC do not have the resources to do research on your behalf and there may be restrictions on access to some records.
Most unions do not hold early records on site.

Download the following resource guide to trade union genealogy


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