Working Life in the 1890's Australia

 

Hello all time to step back till the late 1800's and what the working life of people in Australia was like. According to a Victorian year book of 1894 something like 200,000 people were engaged in manufacturing work in the Aussie Colonies.

Items that started being made in commercial quantities such as biscuits and confectionery had been made in small workshops but slowly that faded out and the big manufacturing companies started to take over.

In the days before Australian factories things like boots, shoes, clothing and even cigarettes were imported from Britain or made in small local workshops. By the end of the 1800's Australian factories would be competing with imported items.

In Melbourne boot and shoe factories were established in the inner city suburbs of Collingwood and Fitzroy. As I said earlier these items would have been made by a small family run business in which the man would cut, join and shape the leather.. His wife would have done the sewing while the children or another apprentice will do other tasks.

Even after the invention of the treadle sewing machine many still like to do the finishing work by hand.