AUSTRALIAN FEDERATED UNION OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEMEN

(Now part of the Rail, Tram and Bus Industry Union)

Artist: Ann Newmarch

Funded by: AFULE, Community Arts Boards & SA Jubilee 150

Launched: AFULE Centenary, Barossa Junction Function Centre, March 1986

I have always wanted to make the talent and skills I have been lucky enough to develop available to particular groups, especially working people. And to do a banner for a union was an ideal extension of that.

The AFULE wanted a banner to celebrate their centenary and so I had the chance to blend the old and the new, to harmonise the traditional skills and designs of banner making with modern concepts of imagery and construction.

As the design got closer to being finished we invited more and more people to comment and I took care to explain to everyone as much about the technique and craft of the design as I could.  Ann Newmarch*

Then Secretary Rex Phillips stressed the banner’s symbolism: The two trains represent those of the era, the 1886 R/Rx Steam Locomotive and 1986 BL Diesel, as do the drivers. The train wheels and driving rods indicate the strength in the union as it strives to protect its members and to improve their working conditions.

*Cited in: Modern Trade Union Banners: An exhibition of recently completed SA union banners, Kathie Muir, Union Arts, United Trades & Labor Council of South Australia, August 1987.

Loaned by the Rail, Tram and Bus Industry Union SA & NT Branch