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Queensland witnessed prolonged class warfare in the 1890s as the presence of trade unions began to diminish. A resurgence was evident by 1912 with a dramatic increase in membership estimated at 22,000 in the Brisbane region alone.
Increased participation in unions paved the way for a wave of strikes which broke out across the State. A dispute, concerning union badges on Brisbane tramway workers’ uniforms, spread across 43 unions with the Strike Bulletin describing it as “the first simultaneous strike in the world”.
The enrolment of mounted police and special constables to quell the unrest backfired with violence erupting on ‘Black Friday’, 2 February 1912. The strike lasted a total of five weeks with Premier Denham resorting to requesting intervention from the army.
One of the most significant actions at the time occurred during a march on Parliament House: Emma Miller, a women’s rights and labour activist in her seventies, stuck a hatpin into the horse ridden by the Police Commissioner, causing him to be thrown to the ground and injured.
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 | | Proclamation ordering participants in the General Strike to disperse, published in the Queensland Government Gazette, No 43, 5 February 1912 |
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 | 1912 Titanic sank | |
1914 World War I began | |
1914 Panama Canal opened | |
1915 Surfing introduced to Australia |
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