Newsletter 9 March
Important Dates
- Monday, 14 March Labour Day Public Holiday.
No staff are on duty this day so please do not forget to collect any ordered meals from our kitchen fridge after 4:30pm. - Tuesday, 15 March
The private dining room and several small tables have been booked for a private function from mid morning to mid afternoon. Thank you in advance for your respect for privacy while the function is being held. - Thursday, 17 March
We are very pleased to announce that the Hester Canterbury monthly dinners are resuming. Please see overleaf for more details.
Hester Newsletter 9 March
Housekeeping Notices
- The monthly dinner will be held on the third Thursday of each month, starting at 7:00pm. Please find the menu selection and sign up sheet on the at
the reception desk. Due to the Labour Day Public holiday the cut off time to sign up will be noon Tuesday 15 March. - Monday 21 March
The new Autumnal weekly menu selection will be starting on the above date. Prior to the above date you will receive the new menus for your selection; please ensure your orders are placed by lunchtime the previous Thursday. - In case anyone hasn’t been informed…. On March 2 Josh Frydenberg, the Federal Member for Kooyong announced to the citizens of Canterbury via written correspondence and the media that the federal government has decided NOT to proceed with funding for the proposed Canterbury Commuter car park. (This decision also applies to the three other proposed carparks locally).
Week Two of the Summer Menu starts on Monday 14 March.
Please place any orders by lunchtime the Thursday before.
Bon Appetit!
Canterbury local a key leader in the 8-hour movement…
In the 1800’s, working class people could expect to work up to 14 hours a day, 6 days a week. There was no sick or annual leave, and one worked literally until death. The Gold Rush in Victoria changed all that for two reasons – first, working class radicals from all over the world saw their chance to escape poverty and persecution and so migrated to Victoria.
Secondly with the Gold Rush there was enormous wealth in Melbourne, but also a serious shortage of skilled workers in the colony, as a result skilled workers had a relatively strong negotiating position to push for 8 hours of work, 8 hours of recreation and 8 hours of rest (The 8 Hours League).
In 1856 stonemasons working on Melbourne University were the first to collectively withdraw their labour. Despite an outcry from their employers, the stone masons won the right to work an 8 hour day for the first time anywhere in the world. Today we commemorate this victory as Labour Day.
It is important to note how revolutionary this achievement was Nowhere else in the world had workers successfully enforced this demand. In fact 30 years later on 1 May 1886, workers in Chicago would strike at Haymarket Square, and this would later be commemorated as International Workers’ Day or ‘May day’ each year world wide.
An important figure in the local 8 hour day movement was Benjamin Douglass (1830 – 1904) a plasterer originally from Kent. Douglass was prime mover in the formation of the United Trades Association, a precursor to the Victorian Trades Hall.
For more than 50 years, Douglass played a significant role in Victorian industrial history. His home “Shandvilla” in Golding Street Canterbury no longer stands, however in 1903 Douglass constructed an extraordinary homemade monument to the 8 hour movement, and built his own arc de triomphe, celebrating his personal involvement in the movement.
There is a photo of Douglass and his monument on display at the Workers’ Museum at Trades Hall, Carlton.