Railway trade unions in Australia

Railway Unions in Australia organised labour of railway employees in Australia operated under federal and State awards - this is a partial list of known unions. Many of the unions amalgamated over time, creating a complex trail of ancestry for some of the later unions.

Federal Award unions

The following unions were based on federal - Australian wide awards ^[1]

• Association of Railway Professional Officers of Australia (1921 - )
• Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen
• Australian Rail Tram & Bus Industry Union, RTBU (1993 - )
• Australian Railways Union, ARU (1921 - 1993) ^[2]
• Australian Tramway and Motor Omnibus Employees' Association
• Australian Transport Officers' Federation
• Commonwealth Engine Drivers & Firemens Association of Australia (1918 - 1925)
• Commonwealth Railway Officers Association (1917 - 1950)
• Federated Tramways Officers Association (1920 - 1949)
• National Union of Rail Workers of Australia (1982 - 1993)

New South Wales

• Australian Railways Union - N.S.W. Branch ^[3]

South Australia

• Australian Railways Union - South Australian Branch ^[4]
• Australasian Society of Engineers - South Australia ^[5]

Tasmania

• Australian Railways Union - Tasmanian Branch ^[6]

Victoria

• Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen (Victorian Division) ^[7]
• Australian Railways Union - Victoria ^[8]
• Victorian Railways Transportation Employees Association (1906 - 1950)
• Train & Locomotive Drivers Association of Victoria (2017 - )

Western Australia

Some of the following unions were the railway related unions in Western Australia. ^[9]

• Association of Draughting, Supervisory and Technical Employees
• Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees (see below, Western Australian...)
• Australian Railways Union (Western Australian Branch) ^[4]
• Railway Industry Council
• Rail Tram and Bus Industry Union
• Western Australian Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees' Union of Workers ^{[10] [11] [12]}
• Western Australian Association of State Railway Employees
• Locomotive Engine Drivers’ Firemen's and Cleaners’ Union of Western Australia
  • (earlier known as West Australian Locomotive Engine Drivers' Firemen's and Cleaners' Union of Workers)
• West Australian Railway Officers’ Union ^{[13] [14]}
• Western Australian Railway Unions Joint Executive ^[15]
• West Australian Vehicle Builders’ Industrial Union of Workers

Records and archives

The Noel Butlin Archives Centre at Australian National University is one of the more significant repositories of railway union records in Australia ^[16]

Notes

1. "Parties to the Award, Pedigree Charts ~ Federally Registered Trade Unions, page 41".
2. The Australian Railways Union formed in September 1920 with the amalgamation of the Queensland Railways Union, the New South Wales Amalgamated Railway and Tramway Service Association, the Victorian Railway Union, the Railway and Tramway Employees Association of South Australia and the Tasmanian Railway Union. It was the first Australian all-grades organisation of railway workers and was federally registered on 8 February 1921. In 1993 the ARU merged with other unions to form the Rail Tram & Bus Industry Union. - archives-dev.anu.edu.au/icaatom-1.3.0/index.php/australian-railways-union-tasmanian-branch-deposit-2;isad ^{[ permanent dead link ‍]}
3. Australian Railways Union. N.S.W. Branch (1900), Report of the Australian Railways Union N.S.W. State Branch ... : State Secretary's report, financial statement and balance sheet, The Branch, retrieved 15 February 2014
4. Australian Railways Union. Western Australian Branch (1900), On-track, A.R.U., W.A. Branch, retrieved 15 February 2014
5. Saunders, Malcolm; Lloyd, Neil (1 November 2011), "Arbitration or collaboration? The Australasian Society of Engineers in South Australia, 1904-68.(Essay)", Labour History: A Journal of Labour and Social History (101), Australian Society for the Study of Labour History: 123(22), ISSN   0023-6942
6. Australian Railways Union. Tasmanian Branch (1976), Tasmanian railway review : the official publication of the Tasmanian Branch of the Australian Railways Union, The Union, ISSN   0313-2374
7. Australian Railways Union. Victorian Branch; Australian Federated Union of Locomotives Enginemen. Victorian Division (1954), ABC always be careful : a manual showing how to work strictly to regulations on the Victorian railways, Industrial Print, retrieved 15 February 2014
8. Australian Railways Union. Victorian Branch (1981), Gazette : official organ of the Australian Railways Union (Victorian Branch), The Branch, retrieved 15 February 2014
9. Found listed at Transport industry union records, 1899-2001 [manuscript] in Battye Library at
10. West Australian Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees' Union of Workers (1930), Rules of the West Australian Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees' Union of Workers, West Australian Amalgamated Society of Railways Employees Union of Workers, retrieved 15 February 2014
11. West Australian Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees Union of Workers (1900), Official report of proceedings of the triennial Conference, The Union, retrieved 15 February 2014
12. West Australian Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees (1902), The railway news : the official organ of the W.A. Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees, The Society, retrieved 15 February 2014
13. West Australian Railway Officers' Union (1962), Award, constitution, rules and by-laws, standing orders, Railway by-law no. 66, dated September, 1962, Perth, retrieved 24 March 2013
14. Railway Officers Union (W.A.) (1896), Railway Officers Union (W.A.) records, 1896-1994 , retrieved 15 February 2014
15. Western Australian Railway Unions Joint Executive (1937), 40 - hour working week : why? : what is necessary : your part, "Worker" Print, retrieved 15 February 2014
16. "Noel Butlin Archives Centre - ANU Archives". Archived from the original on 19 April 2013. Retrieved 16 February 2025.