Australian workers owe much to a determined group of Melbourne stonemasons. On 21 April 1856, they downed tools and marched off the job, demanding shorter hours without a cut in pay. At the time, most workers laboured up to 14 hours a day, six days a week, in punishing conditions and with little security. Their ideal – ‘eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest’ – captured the belief that life should allow time for both learning and leisure, not just work.

The stonemasons’ stand succeeded, making Victoria’s building workers among the first in the world to achieve an eight-hour day. Their victory ignited a national movement for fairer working hours, represented by the ‘888’ emblem and commemorated each year as Labour Day. This Eyewitness News story from 1984 usefully reminds us of the history behind Labour Day – and gently rebukes us for forgetting it, 100 years on. It pointedly contrasts the colourful crowds lining Melbourne's streets for the Labour Day Moomba Parade with a deserted exhibition of dusty trade union banners in a crypt at the State Library.

Three key arguments had shaped the stonemasons' cause: that Australia’s hot climate made long shifts unsafe; that the workers needed time for education and self-improvement; and that families and communities thrived when people had time beyond the job. These ideas turned a local protest into a foundation of social progress.

The principle gradually spread across industries. In 1916, Victoria and New South Wales passed the Eight Hours Act, and by 1948, the federal government had introduced the 40-hour, five-day workweek. The eight-hour day remains a cornerstone of Australian labour history – a reminder that every hard-won right began with workers who dared to claim their time back.

Explore more Fighting for fair work: How Australia’s workers changed the rules