Mural 6: BLF Green Bans

Installed 1982

A painted mural depicts a group of people, with one person holding a sign that reads, “Demand homes for public need. Stop high-rise for private greed.”.

Depicts the rise and fall of the Builders’ Labourers’ Federation in the union movement.

Artist: Merilyn Fairskye, Michiel Dolk

BLF Green Bans focuses on the involvement of the NSW Builders’ Labourers’ Federation in the Green Bans movement in Woolloomooloo. Union efforts shown in the mural include rank-and-file stop-work meetings, street demonstrations and rallies alongside residents.

Mural diagram

Line drawing of the mural's layout, with numbered green circles marking 15 different people, structures, and objects throughout the busy environment.

Mural key

Under the leadership of Jack Mundey, Bob Pringle and Joe Owens, the BLF became a democratic union of 11,000 members
Moscow Narodny Bank, major backer of Sid Londish’s project, lost over $20 million after Londish’s companies later failed
Sid Londish, developer and friend of Robert Askin. In 18 months, his company, Regional Holdings, spent more than $10 million acquiring a 4-hectare slab of Woolloomooloo, consolidating 270 properties. He described his buildings as “tenth rate factories, ramshackle shops and dilapidated slums ... most having long since reached the end of their useful lives” and proposed high-rise towers to cover the basin
Robert Askin, Premier of NSW 1965–1975
Forbes Street residents
Andrew Bridger, architect, planner, Civic Reform alderman, early supporter or high-rise development. Later as a member or the Tripartite Committee, he facilitated Housing Commission plans
Architect with aerial view model of Woolloomooloo Strategic Plan 1969, devised by State Planning Authority
Section of Woolloomooloo Tower, part of the proposed high-rise development plan
Restored terrace elevation, Housing Commission, Forbes Street
Jack Mundey, BLF, addressing meeting or residents
Street demonstration of builders labourers in support of Green Bans, including Joe Owens and Bob Pringle
Builders labourers at a rank-and-file stop-work meeting
Residents at a Green Bans support rally
Anita, a long-term resident
NSW State guardians of law and order, and commonly perceives as Askin’s boys under police commissioners Norman Allan and Frederick Hanson

In 1968 activists took over the NSW Builders’ Labourers’ Federation (BLF) from its conservative leadership and elected Jack Mundey, former rugby league player and Communist Party of Australia (CPA) member), as its secretary. Along with Bob Pringle and Joe Owens from the CPA, the new leadership built the NSW BLF into an “abnormally democratic and combative” union with 11,000 members.

Elected leaders had limited tenure and received wages at the award rate. With a militant ‘no-ticket, no-start’ policy, the union won substantial real wage rises, accident pay, paid public holidays, and improved safety and amenities. This was amid a low wage and dangerous industry characterised by high fatalities.

Real estate speculation fuelled by foreign capital and unrestricted building heights led to a building boom across Sydney. The combination of militant industrial tactics with the internal democracy of the BLF won the involvement and fierce loyalty of its members.

The Mundey team argued for the “social responsibility of labour” and formed alliances with progressive causes and organisation beyond the industrial interests of its members. As well as Green Bans, builders’ labourers imposed industrial bans over prisoner rights, discrimination against a gay student at Macquarie University and in support of a women’s studies course at the University of Sydney.

At the request of the Woolloomooloo Resident Action Group, the Green Bans imposed to prevent further demolition and redevelopment of the suburb followed those imposed on Kelly’s Bush and The Rocks. Approved by full branch meetings, most Green Bans remained in force as an economic recession began in late 1974.

The end came in March 1975, when the Master Builders Association successfully applier for deregistration of the national and state BLF branches. This allowed Norm Gallagher, the federal BLF secretary and a leading member or the pro-China CPA (Marxist-Leninist), which split from the CPA in 1963, to move in and take over the NSW branch.

A collage-style mural depicts protestors, politicians, police, and banners about housing, corporate power, and social issues. — Photo: Chris Southwood / City of Sydney

Next: Mural 7: Passing Through Customs →

View all Woolloomooloo history murals

Designed and painted by local artists Michiel Dolk and Merilyn Fairskye, these 8 murals on the railway pylons in Woolloomooloo preserve and celebrate the suburb’s unique history.