A meeting held on the 12 June 1886 at Ferns Hotel reverberated throughout Australian history. William Guthrie Spence and 
David Temple chaired a meeting after a sharp drop in shearing rates inspired Temple to travel from his home in Creswick across the region to visit shearing sheds and agitate for united bargaining by the many miners/shearers. The meeting brought about the establishment of Australia's first trade union - the Australasian Shearers Union. In 1894, after the Shearers Union amalgamated with the General Labourers' Union (formed in 1891), composed of shed hands and bush workers. It became known as the Australian Workers' Union (AWU). By amalgamation with other bush and labourers' unions and, by extending its constitution, the AWU now covered numerous industries and callings mentioned above. In 1891, the Queensland Shearers Union and the Queensland Workers Union merged to form the Amalgamated Workers Union of Queensland. In 1904, it amalgamated with the AWU, establishing a union with a combined membership of 34,000.