William Guthrie Spence

William Guthrie Spence was born in Eday in 1846, the son of James Maxwell Spence and Jane Guthrie. The family emigrated to Geelong, Victoria when he was about six and soon moved to the mining town of Creswick, north of Ballarat. William worked as a shepherd and a butcher’s boy and then acquired a gold miner’s licence and worked in the mines. He married Ann Jane Savage in 1874.

In 1878, as secretary of the Creswick Miners’ Union Spence helped lead 600 men into the Amalgamated Miners’ Association. He was general secretary of the Association 1882-91 and encouraged other mining unions to affiliate with his association. This union became the Amalgamated Miners’ Association of Australasia.

Spence became a borough councilor in Creswick in 1884 and a JP in 1888. A recent historian is quoted as saying, 'Genial and quite imperturbable, he stands out as the most remarkable man in the remarkable town of Creswick in the eighties'.

When the shearers formed a union in 1886, to oppose a cut in shearing rates, Spence's reputation as an organiser of widely spread workers lead to his being asked to become its first President. By 1890 he had unionised most of Australia’s shearers.

In 1894 the Amalgamated Shearers’ Union itself amalgamated with the General Labourers Union to form the Australian Workers' Union. Under Spence’s leadership it became the most powerful union in Australia. According to Bill Shorten, Secretary of the Australian Workers Union, "he would become the leading architect in the building of our union, not to mention a key figure in the formation of the Australian Labor Party and most importantly played an instrumental role in the Federation of the colonies to form the nation of Australia."

The Australian historian, Geoffrey Blainey, wrote, "If travellers happened to see Spence, standing in the refreshment room at Ballarat railway station, they would have noticed nothing unusual in his appearance, manner or speech ... A quiet negotiator, he was inclined to see a strike as the last cartridge in his belt ... He was not the author of catch-cries and long-remembered phrases; indeed, there was something of the lawyer in his approach to an argument."

Spence believed that the working man should have a voice in politics and in 1891 he supported the formation of the Progressive Political League, an early labour party, in Victoria and supported the first election campaign by the Labour Party in New South Wales.

In 1898 William Spence joined the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as MP for Cobar in western NSW. As he remained President of the Australian Workers Union, he was one of the most powerful men in NSW politics. He supported Federalisation and became MP for Darling in far-west NSW in the first Federal Parliament in 1901.

In 1914-15 Spence was Commonwealth postmaster-general, at that time the second most important position in the cabinet and in 1916-17 vice-president of the Executive Council.

In 1916 he was one of the Labor MPs who supported Prime Minister Billy Hughes move to introduce conscription, which the majority of the Labor Party was opposed to. When the referendum on the subject failed, the MPs who supported conscription were expelled; Spence was also deposed as President of the Union and later expelled.

The expelled MPs formed the Nationalist Party and Spence stood as a Nationalist candidate in the 1917 election. He lost his seat but shortly afterwards won a by-election in Darwin, Tasmania. In the General Election of 1919 he contested Batman, Victoria but lost and retired from politics.

He died at Terang, Victoria on 13 December 1926, survived by his wife, four daughters and three of his five sons. His daughter Gwynetha was married to the journalist and politician Hector Lamond.

In 1972 a suburb of Canberra was named Spence in his honour; the streets were named after other trade unionists. In 2003 the Australian Workers Union opened their new office in Melbourne and named it William Guthrie Spence House. The AWU President, Bill Ludwig, said, "Spence's legacy to the workers of Australia and the nation as a whole cannot be underestimated. His work both at the AWU and in Parliament fundamentally changed the social landscape of this country. It is truly fitting that we honour him through the naming of this building.