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Working Lives & Work Places in Photographs
Image: Digital Photograph - Seven Men & Seven 'Kombi' Volkswagon Vans Lined Up for Stocktake Day, Crockford and Robertson Air Conditioning, Fairfield, 1968
Source: Museum Victoria
A key focus of Museum Victoria's History & Technology Collections is the changing nature of Victorian working lives and workplaces from the earliest years of European settlement in the 1830s through to the present day. While samples of tools and products provide one means of documenting past work practises, images can also provide powerful insight into the changing nature of workplaces and working life. The images collected through the Melbourne's Biggest Family Album project in 2006 document the various tasks that workers have engaged in, equipment and setting, workplace safety, and even who was participating in the workforce in different industries, over time.
Throughout the late 19th and early 20th century, manual labour remained a key part of many workplaces and most non-clerical jobs. Agriculture was one of the first industries to begin mechanising with the loss of rural labour to the goldfields during the 1850s, but on most farms the horse remained the principal source of motive power until after World War I. Steam power played an increasingly important role in mining and manufacturing from the 1860s onwards, but many tasks still required skilled manual labour.
After 1900, electricity gradually began to replace steam power in manufacturing and would eventually lead to a transformation in the layout and appearance of factories, while in retailing it provided the means for improved shop lighting, illuminated advertising signage and later features like refrigerated food display cabinets.
In the home it was not until after World War I that appliances such as washing machines, vacuum cleaners and gas or electric stoves became available, relieving some of the drudgery of domestic work. Young women found employment in education, health care, retailing and some sectors of manufacturing from the late 19th century, but until the 1970s most married women continued to work as full-time homemakers.
Construction work was one of the last industries to depend primarily on heavy manual labour, with machinery like earthmoving equipment, concrete mixers and mechanically powered cranes only gradually being introduced from the 1920s and 30s.
Technical education was introduced from the 1870s, helping to create a more skilled workforce and complementing the more traditional 'on the job' training gained through apprenticeships and indentures.
Throughout the 20th century small businesses continued to employ the majority of workers in retailing and manufacturing. Most of retailing was based on small family-run businesses and personalised service until after World War II when it began to be transformed by the rise of branded chain-stores and shopping malls, creating a trend away from traditional main street shopping strips and the local corner store.
With the post World War II immigration boom, many migrants found work in the manufacturing, construction and retailing sectors where 'unskilled' labour was still heavily in demand.
Items per page: 10 50 (showing 1 - 10) 24 items
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Digital Photograph - Owners of K & A Pappas Australian & Continental Milk Bar, Preston Wes ...
Colour photograph featuring Athanasia (Anna or Sia) and Konstantinos (Kon) Papadimitropoulos in their Papadimitropoulos Milk Bar, also known as the 'K & A Pappas Australian & Continenta ...
From: Preston, Australia Images: 2 -
Digital Photograph - Girl Working at K & A Pappas Australian & Continental Milk Bar, Pres ...
Colour photograph featuring Dimitra Papadimitropoulos at 13 years of age in 1978, working in her parent's Preston milkbar, 'K & A Pappas Australian & Continental Milk Bar'. Dimitra's p ...
From: Preston, Australia Images: 1 -
Digital Photograph - Distant View of K & A Pappas, Australian & Continental Milk Bar Shopf ...
Contributed by Ms Dimitra Birthisel
From: Preston, Australia Images: 1 -
Digital Photograph - K & A Pappas, Australian & Continental Milk Bar Shopfront, Preston We ...
Contributed by Ms Dimitra Birthisel
From: Preston, Australia Images: 1 -
Digital Photograph - Transaction at K & A Pappas Australian & Continental Milk Bar, Presto ...
Contributed by Ms Dimitra Birthisel
From: Preston, Australia Images: 1 -
Digital Photograph - Family outside Kelly's General Store & Mentone Post Office, Mentone, ...
Sepia photograph featuring the Kelly family standing by the verandah of Kelly's General Store and Mentone Post Office, which was located opposite Mentone railway station in Como Parade ...
From: Mentone, Australia Images: 2 -
Digital Photograph - Builders Working on Royal Melbourne Hospital Site, Parkville, circa l ...
Black and white photograph featuring a group of eleven men, including John Bray, who was a builder, working on construction of the new Royal Melbourne Hospital in Parkville around the l ...
From: Parkville, Australia Images: 1 -
Digital Photograph - Control Laboratory, Monsanto Chemicals Australia, Footscray West, 195 ...
Black and white photograph featuring a man working in the Monsanto Chemicals Australia control laboratory, in Footscray West in December 1956. David Meale, who took this photograph, w ...
From: West Footscray, Australia Images: 2 -
Digital Photograph - Seven Men & Eight 'Kombi' Volkswagen Vans, Crockford and Robertson Ai ...
Black and white photograph featuring the service staff and vehicles of Crockford and Robertson Air Conditioning, Fairfield, in June 1968. The photograph was taken on stock-take day at 4 ...
From: Fairfield, Australia Images: 1 -
Digital Photograph - Staff & Family with Delivery Cart, Outside WP Clarke Grocery Store & ...
Black and white photograph featuring William Clarke, Leslie (unknown surname), Bill Clarke, and Rye Clarke in a horse drawn delivery van outside the Clarke family grocery and removal bu ...
From: Chelsea, Australia Images: 2
