Australian Society for the Study of Labour History

The Australian Society for the Study of Labour History was formed in 1961. It was inaugurated at a meeting held at the University of Queensland in May 1961 during a congress of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science. Its foundation members included Asa Briggs, Bob Gollan, Eric Fry, Daphne Gollan, Don Rawson, John Merritt, Sam Merrifield, Joe Harris and others. The Society's journal Labour History has been published regularly since its first beginnings as a bulletin in 1961. The Society has branches in Canberra, Brisbane, Hunter Valley, Sydney, Illawarra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Tasmania, and Perth. Branches are involved in labour history and research, and heritage preservation. In 1999 the ASSHL and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) initiated the MUA Dispute Archive Project in an effort to collect and preserve documents relating to the 1998 dispute between the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and Patrick Stevedores.