DISCUSIÓN

out. They would begin at Rutherglen and work their way across the mountains to Bairnsdale, taking Labor s message to the isolated farming and mining communities, and establishing branches wherever possible,^

With their swags and bicycles stowed in the guard's van, they caught the train to Rutherglen on 11 November. They opened their campaign the following day with a meeting of some 600 people organised by the local branch of the Political Labour Council in the Rutherglen Park. McGrath warmed up the audience with a speech exhorting the faithful to play a more active role in party work and not be content to 'let the few fight the battle of the many'. Anstey, the more seasoned campaigner, was the star attraction. However, he resisted the temptation to treat them to one of his stirring sermons on the gospel of Labor. Bearing in mind the principal objective of the tour, he confined himself to rural issues that were of immediate interest to his audience; the Mines Act and the land question He spoke at length about the iniquities of the government s administration of mining in the state, repeating similar views to those delivered to parliament three months earlier. Mindful that the Reform Movement had been very successful in depicting the Labor Party as a threat to private property, particularly in the country, he went on the point out that, rather than confiscate private land, Labor proposed to increase substantially the number of landowners so that ever man who wished to do so might have a stake in the country’.

Having reassured the good citizens of Rutherglen that Labor really was on the side of the small country man, they were driven around the district by their hosts after which they rode their bikes to Chiltern and caught the train for Wodonga. From there they moved across to Taliangatta where they were entertained by a local sympathiser in that monument to temperance which graced every respectable Victorian town, the Coffee Palace. After a night of earnest and sober discussion they turned their bikes south towards Eskdale and Mitta Mitta, pausing at stages along the

*3 plc Executive Minutes, op a t, 29 October 1904 Their proposal was approved at the same meeting For a profile of McGrath see Peter Love, David Charles McGrath' in Geoffrey Serie led ),

way to make contact w ith friendly locals, On the stretch between Mitta Mitta and Granite Flat the going began to get tough, rem inding them th at they were, indeed, engaged on pioneering work in the Labor cause, The aptly named Snowy Creek, swollen by m elting snow from the mountains, presented them w ith th e ir first obstacle They had to wade across its chest-high, icy w ater th ree times carry in g , in tu rn , th e ir swags, clothes and bicycles. Between L ightning Creek and Mount Willis th e ir gear again became a burden, The track, risin g some 3,000 feet in twelve miles, forced them to do more pushing than riding, Their exertions, however, were rewarded w hen they finally made it to Sunnyside and Glen Willis w here the owners, m anagers and wages men' of both m ining communities gave them a ‘rig h t royal reception' Well attended m eetings were held in both places and two new Political Labour Council branches established. By this stage Anstey and McGrath were becoming accustomed to the rigors of m ountain travel and so decided to take the cross-country route to Benambra w hich allowed them to m arvel at the rugged beauty of the mountains, the high plains and, as they approached th e ir destination, Lake Omeo. At Benambra they again reported a splendid reception’ followed by a crowded m eeting th at w ent on late into the night, The next day they were driven to Omeo by a member of the m iners' union , The a rriv a l of two MPs was regarded as an im portant occasion by the residents of Omeo, A meeting, chaired by the local Presbyterian m inister, was arranged in the shire hall. A b ran ch of the Political Labour Council was set up and, as an expression of non-partisan hospitality, Anstey and McGrath were treated to a smoke n ig h t in th e ir honour the following evening, News of th e ir presence spread quickly throughout the district and they w ere soon caught up in a hectic round of receptions and public meetings at Cassilis, Tongio, Swifts Creek, Ensay, Stirling and Tambo Crossing. However, they w ere not always greeted with the same warm hospitality that they had enjoyed in Omeo. At a m eeting w ith farm ers in the Ensay area McGrath locked ho rn s with a local squatter who declined th e ir invitation to attend the evening meeting, fearing th at he m ight not be able to control him self and become violent, Although they offered to mix it', he did not attend and the m eeting proved to be entirely

4: Liberty & Land ₁₄₁

congenial But political opponents were not the only danger, as Anstey discovered on the way to Bruthen when his bike got away on one of the steep grades, with the result that he was laid out for several hours'. Blazing a trail for Labor propaganda in that part of the country, it seems, was indeed a perilous task If the squatters did not get them, the topography did. Although Anstey suffered no lasting injury, the accident, combined with a misunderstanding about the venue for their meeting in Bruthen, caused them to miss the engagement and the chance to start another branch, By that stage, however, they had run out of time and had to hurry on to Bairnsdale where they caught the train back to Melbourne,84

Despite these misfortunes in the latter stages, the tour was a remarkable effort, During their twenty-one day trek through some of the most difficult country in Victoria they had addressed fourteen meetings in isolated towns and settlements, established contact with a network of sympathisers in areas where Labor members had not been before and set up a number of party branches, even though some proved to be ephemeral,8^ But beyond these more practical results, they had proved themselves true apostles of the cause, taking the gospel of Labor into new territory and giving it a voice where its opponents had previously gone unchallenged It was both a propaganda success and yet another sign of the party's determination to broaden its electoral base

When the Bulletin of 26 January 1905 declared that Labor was, despite its pretensions, a city party pure and simple', Anstey replied through the pages of

Tocsin with accustomed vigor. He readily acknowledged that Labor had begun as a city party but pointed out, quite reasonably, that all parties had to begin somewhere,

84 For reports on the tour see Tocsin, 24 November 1904, p 3; 1 December 1904, p 8; 8 December 1904, p 5; and 15 December 1904, p 6 The reports imspired one reader to propose the formation of a labourite cycling club based on the English model of the Clarion clubs See Tocsin 22

December 1904 p i Despite the apparent success of the tour, the Executive was rather tardy in granting the £8 which Anstey and McGrath claimed as expenses See PLC Executive Minutes op

cit, 21 January 1905; 4 February 1905; and 29 April 1905