Immigrant George Capel’s letter described Brisbane as ‘a city of hotels’, Brisbane Courier 5 October 1895 p6. As hotels are a defining social and architectural feature of a place, they are well-covered in photographs and colourful stories. Their customers, topics of jokes and tall tales provide interest to the public. Publicans are usually well-known, sometimes wealthy citizens. Hotel workers however, could tell a hidden ‘remarkable’ story.
What was it like to work in a hotel?
In 1891, Patrick Doig, a barman before the Shops, Factories and Workshops Commission (Queensland Votes and Proceedings Legislative Assembly 1891 Vo2 pp 1167-1170) described his working conditions.
After immigrating as a boy from Ireland he worked in hotels for five and a half years: the Belfast, Normanby, Empire, Royal, Woolloongabba, Transcontinental and Oriental.
He objected to newspaper publication of his name, unsurprising given his evidence. He stated the following, when questioned by Frank McDonnell:
Hours worked per day: ‘From fifteen to seventeen hours beginning in the morning at 6 ending sometimes at 10 or 11…. If busy we sometimes work until 12 … straightening up the place.’ On Sunday, he was ‘just cleaning up the bar – about two hours’ work.’
Conditions in hotels he had worked in previously: ‘17 hours with no time off during the day.’ He said barmaids ‘generally work fifteen and a half hours a day.’
Wages: Barmaids ‘15s to £1 a week.’ He received ‘at present £2.’ Previously he had received as little as ‘17s 6d.’
Sleeping accommodation: ‘[Usual accommodation was] four beds in one room at one place … only room to pass between the beds’ At the Transcontinental, ‘the barmen slept in the yard. The house covered with iron, had room for one bed only, with a passage between it and the wall…. In summer I could not rest for the heat, and it was impossible to lie down there during the day…. The Normanby Hotel was the only one where the men had fair accommodation.’ Barmaids ‘sleep under the same roof as the hotel.’
Right: Nicholson & Wright. (n.d.). Architectural drawing of the Normanby Hotel, Brisbane. Copyright free to use. Image held by State Library of Queensland.
Patrick Doig stated: ‘the only hotel out of eight which had fair accommodation for men.’
Improving conditions: Mr McDonnell queried him about a union formed earlier ’to have hours reduced and to get better accommodation.’ Patrick Doig responded: ‘The bosses threatened to discharge [the workers] if they continued to stick to the union.’ When questioned as to what he ‘considered a fair day’s work for a barman,’ Patrick Doig said: ‘Twelve hours, with two hours off in that time.’
Possibility under existing conditions to get hours shortened except by legislative enactment: His response to Thomas Glassey’s question about this option: ‘There is no possible chance except in that way.’
Holidays: Patrick Doig stated he had ‘never known [barmen] to get holidays … we work harder on public holidays.’ In many other hotels he said barmen ‘work from breakfast until 10 at night’ on Sunday, unless ‘they are in the habit of going to church [when] they get away for that time. [Hotels] are supposed to be closed but they do a little on the quiet.’ Mr Glassey asked, ‘Do you think closing could be enforced with greater success if there was a change of the persons who occupy positions on the bench? – Do you think the trading classes generally, who are mostly justices, will not enforce Sunday closing, and thus limit the profits of their brother tradesmen?’ No response recorded.
Barmaids and private bars: ‘[Hotels] that keep private bars keep barmaids. They are not taught to mix liquors like barmen,’ Doig states. ‘At one bar [public] they have 3d drinks, and in the other, where people have more cash, they have 6d drinks.’ He explained: ‘the men who have more cash than labouring men do not wish to mix with them. The spirit kept in the private bar is superior to the stuff kept in the public bar.’ Those working in private bars ‘do not get higher wages.’
Patrick Doig was the only barman to give evidence to the Commission despite Brisbane being a ‘city of hotels.’ The problems of unreasonably long hours, unsafe and unsanitary conditions were widespread in shops, factories and businesses for drapers, butchers, bakers, bootmakers, printers and shop assistants. The barmen’s hours were eventually reduced to 72 hours/wk. The Chief Inspector of Factories commented on the makeshift nature of workrooms, excessively hot from the common use of galvanised iron walls and roofing.
Frequently girls as young as ten walked home late at night to save transport costs. Boys aged ten worked in butcher shops. Apprentices unpaid, were sacked when their apprenticeship finished. Frank McDonnell stated that women employed in drapery received ¼ to ⅓ of the male rate for the same job.
Persons called before Government Committees 1860-1920 includes workers in Queensland detailing their conditions. Indexed by witnesses’ names, it provides insight into people and issues of the times.
Why is this information of interest?
Discover detail, available nowhere else, to:
- read the witnesses’ own words
- hear from those not normally heard
- learn personal detail, otherwise undisclosed, as witnesses explain their background and why they provided evidence
- become aware of how these conditions affected people’s lives
Find out more…
Use the State Library catalogue One Search (advanced). Limit to family history indexes
- Find out more not only about individuals providing evidence to Government Committees but also about others in specialised indexes. Coverage includes soldiers, miners, farmers, licensed victuallers, railway workers, deaths reported in police gazettes.
- Search a personal name. Consider variants: initials instead of first name. Where there are name repetitions, use specific words in the index e. g. ‘government inquiry’; add the ‘not’ option to exclude groups in a search e.g. victualler, soldier.
- Search other sources on people and places using options in One Search
- Read Brisbane in the 1890s : a study of an Australian urban society / Ronald Lawson
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