(a)

(d)

The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's importance in the course, or pattern, of Australia's natural or cultural history.

The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of:

A class of Australia’s natural or cultural places; or a class of Australia’s natural or cultural environments.

The Victorian Trades Hall is of outstanding value to the nation for its importance in the development of trade unionism in Australia, and its involvement in major social and political events of significance in Australia’s history. It is directly connected to incremental wins in the improvement of workers’ rights and the establishment of an organised labour movement in Australia. 

The origins of the Victorian Trades Hall can be found in the Eight Hour Day Movement, which established the working patterns still held by Australians today. Constructed between 1874 and 1925, the building occupies the site where the first, temporary Trades Hall was opened in May 1859. Both the temporary 1859 building and the current Trades Hall building were constructed by those who campaigned for and won an Eight Hour workday in 1856. The building was intended as a space where trade unions could share and develop a ‘coherent culture’ of political and co-operative components. As a result, the social, labour and political achievements of the union movement were aided by the co-location of these groups at Trades Hall. Key campaigns of the Victorian Trades Hall included: the Eight Hour Day for all workers; ‘Equal pay for equal work’; advocating for a Royal Commission into the conditions of female and child workers; and anti-conscription during World War I.

The size and scale of the Victorian Trades Hall building, its additions and alterations over time, commemorative elements and decorative features, all contribute to its ability to be read as a significant structure reflective of the growing force of the union movement and breadth of representation across industries. The Victorian Trades Hall was the location of meetings and action that significantly shaped Australia’s social, political and economic development. As Australia’s oldest and largest Trades Hall, it stands as a symbol of the importance of organised labour within Australian society.

The sustained political agitation born from the trade unions at the Victorian Trades Hall resulted in the Victoria Eight Hours Act being passed in 1916. The Act built on the success of the original trades that won the Eight Hour Day in 1856 and granted it to all workers in Victoria. The same came into effect in NSW the same year, building momentum at a national level. Eventually, in January 1948 (over ninety years after masons walked off work sites in Melbourne), the Commonwealth Arbitration Court approved a 40-hour, five-day working week for all Australians.

Attributes expressing this value include:

• The building elements constructed between 1874-1925 which demonstrate its original function of providing accommodation for union offices, Trade Hall Council and committee meetings, and other functions related to the eight hour and labour movements, including political campaigns and commemorative events.

• The imposing presentation of the building’s exterior facades to Lygon and Victoria Streets, including the use of campaign banners on the exterior of the building.

• The layout and internal circulation between each stage of the building’s development demonstrating the growth and importance of the union movement over time, including the ability to read each stage as progressive additions to the overall building.

• Original interior elements of the building and the collection of artefacts that demonstrate the living traditions of the Australian labour movement, including flags, banners, honour boards.

The Victorian Trades Hall has outstanding heritage value to the nation for its ability to demonstrate, to a high degree, the principal characteristics of a Trades Hall building within Australia.

As a nationally significant class of place, trades halls were inextricably linked with the improvement of working conditions in Australia’s cultural, social and economic history. They were intended as a space to bring workers together for political, social, cultural and educational purposes. They were established as independent from government as well as employers.

Trades hall buildings were located across Australia, having at some point been in all major capital cities, demonstrating the wide reach of the union movement in the country through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Purpose built trades halls have particular characteristics which demonstrate their operation, and as such qualify as a ‘class of place’.

The Victorian Trades Hall was the first purpose-built trades hall constructed in Australia. Both the original, temporary timber building (1859, now demolished) and the first section of the permanent building (1874) predate other trades halls in Australia.

The building’s combination of small offices, meeting rooms and meeting halls/council chambers demonstrates the spatial layout on a far greater scale than other trades halls in Australia, with rooms added in stages as the need arose as a result of the expansion of representation of industries and their unions. Its combination of small offices, meeting rooms and larger meeting halls/council chambers influenced the design of later trades halls across Australia.

The building displays high integrity in terms of the layout for each stage of its development and demonstrates all of the key characteristics of a trades hall, including the combination of meeting rooms, council chambers, banner room, halls, offices and libraries.

Attributes expressing this value include:

• The building as a whole, demonstrating its original function of providing accommodation for union offices, Trade Hall Council and committee meetings, and other functions relating to the eight hour and labour movements, including political campaigns and commemorative events.

• The internal layout, demonstrating the relationship between individual union offices and larger chambers for broader Trades Hall Council and committee meetings.

• Elements that express the staged nature (1874-1925) of the building, demonstrating the growth and importance of the union movement over time.

• Council chambers and halls, including original elements and furniture, demonstrating spaces used for large gatherings.

• Banner room, where banners used in parades and marches were once stored.

• The imposing presentation, of the building’s exterior facades to Lygon and Victoria Streets including the use of campaign banners.