Tree of Knowledge (Australia)

The Tree of Knowledge is a heritage-listed tree in Oak Street, Barcaldine, Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia. The town was the headquarters of the 1891 Australian shearers' strike and the 1892 reading of the Labour Party manifesto leading to the formation of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It was a 200-year-old Corymbia aparrerinja ghost gum. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.HistoryThe Tree of Knowledge is a ghost gum located in front of the Barcaldine railway station under which the workers of the 1891 Shearer's Strike met. An icon of the Labor Party and Trades Unions, it symbolises the foundation of the organised representation of labour in Queensland.Barcaldine sprang up in 1886 as the terminus of the Central Western railway. The area was already settled by pastoralists and had previously been centred on Blackall. Large sheep stations were like small townships with their own working facilities, stores, worker's accommodation and tradesmen such as blacksmiths. The owners and managers of these stations had considerable power to dictate terms to an itinerant workforce of sheep shearers recruited for the shearing season. Poor working conditions, low pay and the threat of competition from cheap foreign labour caused discontent within the industry.