"What is May Day?" is a short article that records some of the history of May Day in the Hunter Region ? from the earlier and then concurrent demonstrations of the Eight-Hour Day movement in the 1880s to the grand parades of May Day along Hunter Street in Newcastle in the 1950s and to our most recent celebrations.

It is brief as this article has been limited to the documents and reports held on file by the following organisations: the May Day Committee of Newcastle Trades Hall Council, the workers cultural action committee, the Local Studies Unit of the Newcastle Region Library and the University of Newcastle Auchmuty Library Archives.

It is unfinished as a wealth of information remains to be collected ? from individuals throughout the Hunter, other public libraries, past union journals and newspapers.

I encourage you after reading this article to write down your recollections of May Day or to look for old photographs and newspaper clippings and to donate this information to Newcastle Trades Hall Council to be properly archived and publicly available. If you have access to this site then you can 'tell us your story' using our special page.

Hopefully, we can expand on this article to provide a fuller account of May Day in the Hunter Region.

mayday committee
newcastle trades hall council