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Fremantle Workers Social and Leisure Club
A booklet on the history of the Club was launched on Sunday 9 November by Hon. Melissa Parke MP. Written by Deborah Gare and Jane Davis, its title is The Fremantle Workers Social and Leisure Club 1914-2014: Celebrating 100 Years. Copies are available at the Club and from New Edition bookshop for $10.
Photos of the launch
Melissa Parke's speech on launching the Club history
Good afternoon everyone. It's fantastic to be here for this wonderful occasion.
I acknowledge that we gather here on the land of the Whadjuk Noongar people and we pay our deep respects to elders past and present for whom this place where the river meets the sea has always been very special.
I acknowledge all the members and guests here today – and want to particularly mention State member for Fremantle Simone McGurk, Mayor Brad Pettit and Deputy Mayor Josh Wilson.
Friends, it's a privilege to be here with all of you to celebrate 100 years of the Fremantle Workers Social & Leisure Club and the launch of this incredible book cataloguing the story of the club which mirrors in so many respects the story of Fremantle as a working port city.
On the Friday before last we marked 100 years to the day that Western Australian troops embarked on the Medic and Ascanius – and it's amazing to think of the period in which this club has provided social, cultural and political sustenance to the workers and the wider community in Fremantle.
It was on the second of September in that same year 1914 that my now distant predecessor, RJ Burchell, the then federal member for Fremantle, opened the clubhouse in what had formerly been the Lodge's Hotel, two doors up from where we are today, which was thought to be the first 3-storey building in WA.
Before the Workers Club took it over, the building had housed the most exclusive gentlemen's club in the state, known as the Fremantle Club, strictly for the merchant class. After the discovery of gold in WA in 1890, the nature of Freo changed – the elites moved out and the workers moved in. The exclusive Fremantle Club closed and it was fitting that it was replaced by the Workers Club, which became the second home for many in Fremantle, especially those who worked on the wharf.
And though one of the first battles the Club fought was to have its own liquor license, I love the fact that in its first year the Club empowered its secretary to purchase books for a library of democratic literature that by 1932 contained 3000 books.
As Alexander McCallum, one of Simone's predecessors, the Labor Member for South Fremantle, said, the Club “catered for the social and, to a certain degree, the intellectual side of the workman's life.”
This Club has been a gathering place for the labour movement in Fremantle over a long period of time and so it has been, at times, the
stage for some of the key moments in Freo's history – including battles on the wharf, the world wars and Depression in between, and the Cold War that followed.
I loved the story of the Club's Fufu band established during the Depression with some ragtag musicians playing homemade instruments who performed regularly for events supporting unemployed workers.
I was distraught however to read that when the club moved to its new building in 1956, it demolished its original 19th century home to make way for a 40-vehicle carpark!
The club also introduced poker machines to help pay off construction costs but Bert Hawke's Labor government – with great wisdom and insight - soon eliminated poker machines across the state.
More recently the club has witnessed and experienced the transformation of Australia that occurred as a result of the great reforms of the Whitlam government – including the expanded role for women in all parts of Australian life, which as Cate Blanchett noted in her address at Gough's memorial service this week, extended the degree and quality of opportunities to women through free tertiary education, equal pay for equal work, supporting mothers benefits, no-fault divorce and the appointment of numerous women to senior positions including, for the first time, a Prime Ministerial adviser on the welfare of women and children.
However, for all of the progress, equality is yet to be fully achieved. Back in 1972 the Arbitration Commission agreed to the principle of equal pay for work of equal value but today women are still paid on average 17% less than men.
If we look at the situation of aged-care workers and childcare workers, most of whom are women, they are taking care of the most vulnerable people in our community – our children and elderly family members –yet they are still among the lowest paid and under-appreciated workers in Australia.
Friends, I would like to say that the Workers Club always championed the rights and equality of women but it reflected the society of its time, and it was only around 1956 – when the club started operating from this building - that women began to get a long-overdue look in – first in the form of limited visiting rights and then, by the early 70s, with the opportunity to become lady members. It wasn't until 1985 that full and equal membership for women became available. However, I note that Fran Herold, who became a life member of the club in 1991 after being with the club since 1968, only received a silver medal while the men receiving life memberships were given gold medals. I am happy that this will be rectified today.
In any event, as the book points out, women may have had no need and no desire for such a club as the state's first Labor Women's Organisation had already been formed in Fremantle in 1905 by such indomitable Labor women as Jean Beadle and later Elsie Curtin and Dorothy Tangney.
Nevertheless I am glad to say that the current Club committee is now comprised of 4 men and ... 5 women! And of course we thank all the Committee members for their hard work since 2011 in revitalising the Club and securing its future. They are Micheal Bell, Mattie Turnbull, Anne Hughes, Cherie McNeill, Ellis Griffiths, Reg Gordon, Maddy Brockhuysen and of course I want to take this opportunity to give special thanks and recognition to Don Whittington and to Ruth Belben.
Don Whittington as President has done an incredible job in taking the Club from a position on the brink of permanent closure and dissolution – to the point where it has returned to a level of vitality and energy and relevance not seen for the better part of two decades.
There is no doubt that we are living in a challenging period for community organisations and not-for-profit groups – and in many cases clubs and associations have simply not survived the pressure that comes with declining membership, growing maintenance costs, and weak revenues. The Workers Club was facing exactly that kind of predicament, but Don and Ruth – because I know Don would be the first to acknowledge that Ruth has been equally important in supplying her time and energy to this cause; Don and Ruth and others refused to accept that the writing was on the wall.
Instead they set out to write a new dramatic chapter in the history of this Club. And so, many of us here have seen and enjoyed the Fremantle Workers Social & Leisure Club reclaim its mantle as a focal point for social interaction, live music, good food & drink, and lively conversation.
All of the rich colour and drama associated with this Club is condensed and captured in this wonderful book – and I take this opportunity to congratulate the Club and the authors Deborah Gare and Jane Davis, Notre Dame University, Bob Sommerville, Garry Gillard, the Fremantle History Centre, as well as Don, Ruth and Ellis who provided editorial advice for delivering this detailed and beautiful addition to the story of Fremantle's rich heritage.
At the very reasonable price of $10, I urge everyone to buy a copy for yourselves and another couple as Christmas gifts.
Friends, the future of the Workers Club is of vital importance to this community – not just as a meeting place; not just as a focus for social interaction and cohesion; but also as a place that brings together those with a commitment to social justice and shared wellbeing, certainly for those of us in the Labor party and the labour movement but across the Fremantle community in general.
The workers club is not defined by the building it is in. It is rather a commitment to shared values and to collective action and comradeship.
I am glad and grateful, as I'm sure all members are, that the current committee has worked so carefully to support Don in plotting a sound course into the future.
By working with the City of Fremantle and in collaboration with other sporting & social clubs, the Fremantle Workers Club is helping to drive progress towards a new consolidated facility at Fremantle Park.
In the meantime I know we will all look forward to continuing the Workers Club tradition at that other great home of the colour red, South Fremantle Football Club.
So can I finish by declaring this wonderful centenary book by Deborah Gare and Jane Davis officially launched and by proposing a toast to Don and Ruth and to the Fremantle Workers Social and Leisure Club.
100 years ... and counting!
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]]Fremantle Workers Social and Leisure Club Inc.
freoworkers@iinet.net.au
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PO Box 1623 Fremantle 6959 | SFFC phone: 9335 1555
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally hosted at freotopia.org/clubs/freoworkers/launch.html. The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.