Agent TypeOrganisationActivities & OccupationsTrade union peak bodiesHistoryAfter the gaining of the Eight Hour Day for Victorian building workers in 1856, a small nucleus of the campaigners lobbied the Government of the Colony of Victoria for a Crown Grant of Land on which to erect a building for the use of 'artificers and operatives'. One acre was allocated in 1858 and gazetted in the names of ten Trustees approved by the Governor-in-Council, although the Crown Grant was not formally issued until 11 October 1875. The Trades Hall and Literary Insitute Committee was formed on 3 December 1858 to erect buildings on this land. (Records for the period are at the Mitchell Library, NSW.) The first Trades Hall was opened in 1859. The original building was replaced by a grander one between 1873 to 1925 to reflect its status as a 'parliament' of the working class. The Trades Hall and Literary Institute was, and remains, a separate organisational entity to the Victorian Trades Hall Council. The Trustees of the Trades Hall property manage the building and lands of the Trades Hall complex. A dispute in 1885/1886 between the Trustees of the Trades Hall Council over relative powers in financial and building management led to revised Trades Hall and Literary Institute Regulations being adopted on 11 March 1886.
Melbourne Trades Hall And Literary Institute. University of Melbourne Archives, accessed 17/12/2025, https://archives.library.unimelb.edu.au/nodes/view/58478
![[2002.0024] Records of Melbourne Trades Hall And Literary Institute](/img/placeholder.gif?1762209064 "[2002.0024] Records of Melbourne Trades Hall And Literary Institute")