History – The Sir Richard Kirby Archives

The Australian Constitution was amended to include an 'industrial power' allowing the Commonwealth Parliament to make laws with respect to 'conciliation and arbitration for the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes extending beyond the limits of any one State’.

The Fair Work Commission, and its predecessors, is one of Australia’s oldest key institutions. The tribunal has made many decisions that have affected the lives of working Australians and their employers. Since its creation in 1904 the institution has evolved in line with substantial legislative, social and economic changes. 

The Sir Richard Kirby Archives was set up in 2002 at our Melbourne office. It’s named after the tribunal’s longest-serving president and is used to store and organise important materials from our history, including those from earlier and later organisations.

Since 2002, the Kirby Archives collection has grown to include photographs, documents and memorabilia as well as a series of oral history interview recordings with former members, registry staff and other key industrial relations figures.

The collection has also been used to stage public exhibitions on themes highlighting our role in Australian industrial relations and society. 
 

The 9th exhibition from the Sir Richard Kirby Archives, Equal Pay – A history of women’s wages and the Commission, looks at how Australia’s workplace relations tribunal has helped close the pay gap between men and women. 

A series of landmark cases, from the 1912 Fruit-pickers case to the 2022–24 Aged Care Work Value case, shows how decision-makers have continued to review and improve equal pay in jobs mostly done by women.

This exhibition was launched in November 2024.

Waltzing Matilda and the Sunshine Harvester Factory is a history resource for the general reader and for secondary and tertiary students, published by Fair Work Australia (now the Fair Work Commission) in 2011. It discusses the early history of the Arbitration Court, the Australian minimum wage, working hours and paid leave, including:

• the reasons why the Australian Parliament established the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration in 1904
• the establishment by the Court of a minimum wage, beginning with the Harvester decision of 1907 that 7 shillings a day for an unskilled labourer was 'fair and reasonable wages'
• the later change in the 1960s and 1970s to equal award pay for women and Aboriginal stockmen, and the development of special lower minimum wages for adolescents and apprentices, and
• the gradual development of sick leave, annual leave, maternity and paternity leave in the 1930s–1990s.

The book is supported by a dedicated section of our website providing access to a range of educational materials and resources for teachers and students, including a special section for teachers to enable the book to be taught.

Printed copies of the book can be purchased from any of our offices and it is also available for free download from iTunes.

Documentary film Waltzing Matilda and the Sunshine Harvester Factory

The Honourable Bill Shorten, MP, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, launched the documentary film Waltzing Matilda and the Sunshine Harvester Factory in August 2012.

The film covers the same material as the book with the same name. You can download the documentary for free from our educational resource website. If you prefer a DVD, you can buy one from our offices.

Read more about Waltzing Matilda and the Sunshine Harvester Factory