Tolpuddle Martyrs

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Six farm labourers of Tolpuddle, a village in Dorset, England, who were transported to Australia in 1834. The labourers had formed a union on the advice of the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union (GNCTU) to try to prevent their wages being reduced. Entry into their ‘union’ involved a payment of a shilling (5p), and swearing before a picture of a skeleton never to tell anyone the union's secrets. Local magistrates used an old law to convict the men for ‘administering unlawful oaths’. The severity of the punishment destroyed the GNCTU. After nationwide agitation, the labourers were pardoned two years later. They returned to England and all but one migrated to Canada.

The bird of paradise represents liberty. The Southern Cross recalls the country's links with Australia. Effective date: 16 September 1975. >>