I recently came across this recording of a talk I delivered for the New South Wales State Library a few years ago, as part of their Scholar Talks series. The talk was part of my 2019 Dr AM Hertzberg AO Fellowship, but given online in 2022 due to the disruption of the pandemic.
You can watch the talk on You Tube or via the Library’s website.
The talk focuses on economic crisis, telling the story of the Right to Work march in 1982 where unemployed people and others walked from Wollongong to Sydney to demand jobs, crossing paths with a livelong unionist Bert Heinemann and other metal workers from Garden Island:
We are in the midst of economic turmoil as a result of pandemic, but what was the last crisis like and can we learn from it? This talk explores what it was like for blue collar workers in Australia in the rolling economic crisis from 1974 to 1991. Focussing on the experience of metal workers and those who could not find work, Elizabeth asks: What happened and was everyone in it together? What solutions were implemented and why? Who thrived and who was left behind?
You can also read a related and shorter version of this paper in an article I wrote for the Library’s magazine Openbook.
Poster advertising the march in Wollongong. Redback Graphix, silkscreen print by Gregor Cullen. NSW State Library collection.
Top photo by Bert Heinemann, 1982, held in the NSW State Library collection. Metal workers at Garden Island waiting to head to meet the Wollongong Right to Work marchers at Belmore Park, Sydney.
With thanks to Peter Murphy and Nick Southall for the assistance during my research.
