A local variation : region, locality and industrial quiescence in Rockhampton to the 1950s

In contrast to the North Queensland city of Townsville, which, from the industrial record to the 1950s at least, gained a reputation for militancy, its Central Queensland counterpart of Rockhampton demonstrated comparative quiescence. These contrasting portraits demonstrate the fallacy of the assumption that the making of the working class was uniform in Australia; they illustrate that workers' outlook and organisation was shaped not only by a shared national experience but also by differing regional and local experiences. While Townsville's militancy has been the focus of historical exploration, the same cannot be said of Rockhampton. The following paper examines the question of industrial quiescence in the Central Queensland 'capital' to the 1950s and locates the roots of this phenomenon in a complex of causative factors: the nature of the regional economy which, despite superficial similarity with the North, was profoundly different in vital ways; labour controls of both management and union leadership, and other organisational factors within unions; and, at a deeper level, the socio-cultural complexion of the city which fostered relative inter-class harmony and deterred class consciousness and militancy on the part of workers.