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Arthur Cousins - a biography

Arthur Cousins 1866-1960  Michael Organ  3 March 1994 [This book chapter was originally published as Arthur Cousins: A Biography, in Illawarra: The Garden of New South Wales , Illawarra Historical Society, November 1994, 360p. ] Abstract  He was that "rara avis" in Australian historiography, the devoted local historian who has a realisation of the broader implications of regional development. So wrote Sydney University Archivist D.S. Macmillan in an obituary notice published in the October 1960 number of the Union Recorder, commemorating the death of Arthur Cousins on Wednesday, 17 August, at his Cremone residence, aged 94 years. Though having known him for only a brief period at the end of a long life, Macmillan had developed a degree of admiration and respect for this elderly gentleman, who, along with G.E. Hall and others, had worked towards the creation of the Sydney University Archives, where Macmillan was appointed first full-time archivist in 1954...
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Brickies: Working life at the Thirroul Brickworks 1972-1983

“Brickies” - Working life at the Thirroul Brickworks 1972–1983 Michael Organ [Initially published in Illawarra Unity , volume 6, number 2, November 2006, 55-71.] The annals of Australian labour history are full of stories of mining disasters, the hardships of long drawn out strikes, union battles with government and bosses, and instances of extraordinary individual actions to defend hard won wages and conditions. However the more mundane trials, tribulations and misadventures of working life for those involved in seemingly non-hazardous industries are often left unrecorded. The brick, tile and pottery sector is one which does not figure prominently in accounts of working class struggle, though of course it played a part and continues to do so. Between 1972–83 I worked at the Thirroul brickworks, located approximately 80km south of Sydney in Wollongong’s northern suburbs. Having opened as the Vulcan Fire Brick Company in 1919, on an area of flood-prone wetland between Bulli an...
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