Historedia
Episode 1 of 2

Melbourne Stonemasons March

When
21 April 1856
Where
Parliament House
Part of
Melbourne building workers agitate for the eight-hour day

Stonemasons in Melbourne stopped work on April 21, 1856, and marched to Parliament House to demand an eight-hour day.

Stonemasons working on Melbourne University organized to down tools on 21 April 1856. They marched to Parliament House with other members of the building trade, following the expiration of the Sydney ultimatum in February 1856.

Sources

  1. Eight-hour day movement Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-24

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.