Ashleigh May’s Urban Experience

Photography

Museum Marriage

Birds sit too

Life quality for the working-class in 19th

and 20th century Richmond

And how it differs from today.

Lifestyle

Work was tough for working- class males who were expected in most cases to be the sole provider for their family.

Manual labour was dangerous, uncomfortable – with little ventilation, extreme heat in Summer, extreme cold in Winter and lacking in amenities and long hours all for very little pay.

With little technology, machinery was at its basic, so physical labour was how to get things done. For 60 hours (rather than the maximum of 40 hours today) men would slave away under poor safety conditions with injuries and death being a common result of faulty equipment.

The early 20th century brought basic wages, maximum hours and inspections of the workplace leading the way to the worker’s rights of today.

It was not until the mid 20th century when workers gained rights into their hours, conditions and pay. Before then, a complaint could result in a dismissal, which was much more difficult to sustain a family with no income.

Today it is mandatory for manual workers to have machinery in perfect condition and protective clothing worn at any time while operating.

There is now compensation for work-place injuries, super-annuation for retirement, sick and annual leave .

Men

Women From a young age, females would take over as the cook, cleaner,

carer and in the cases of being a working-class family, the ‘doctor’.

Before a woman was married, she would work as a sales assistant or a manual labourer for 54% of the pay a man would get for the same job. Though not as testing on the body as a male labourer's job, the females would hold jobs with extremely low pay for the exceptionally long hours they worked. When married, she was expected to quit and take on the role as a wife and mother.

If times got especially tough for the poorest families, the wife would become a domestic servant for a middle or upper-class family. Her treatment would range from having a generous and easy-going family to look after, or she would be given a house with an unforgiving and heavy workload.

Today, Richmond pays an equal income to both men and women, who now can file for maternity leave when expecting a child.

The average time for a working-class child to leave school was at the age of 12, and from there they would pursue a manual labouring career.

For 2c an hour, the children would work up to 60 hours a week. They would work at least 6 hours every day, leaving little time for

play and socializing, which would be described as a necessity for young children growing up today.

This lack of education created discipline problems with adolescents. Some would become what was known as ‘larrikins’, members of city-street gangs who emitted drunken, aggressive and unruly behaviour amongst the streets of Richmond.

Today, it is a right for a child to pursue an education to at least the age of 16, and only part-time jobs are available to those of the age of 15 and above, also drinking is not legal until the age of 18.

Children

Environment

Richmond’s environment was a heath hazard to all who lived there in the 19th century.

Prior to 1848, the streets of Richmond were filthy. The sidewalk was a common dumping place for leftovers, sewerage, dead animals and rubbish in general.

These decaying substances were breeding grounds for flourishing diseases such as typhoid, colonial, diarrhoea, whooping cough, scarlet and diphtheria.

Houses were made of cheap, unstable materials that were required to shelter many people in a small amount of space. This overcrowding was a key factor of the transmission of diseases, being so close to one-another.

In 1920, Environmental Health awareness was brought to schools, so children could learn basic hygiene , cleanliness, physical education, mental health and the benefits of fresh air and healthy eating.

Today, the pristine environment in Australia is a constant reminder of how important a healthy environment is on health, safety and quality of life.

From the age of 14, boys were employed at Richmond’s

Gasworks. For 10 hours a day, 6 days a week + overtime, they would

be exposed to harmful gases and radiation that would effect their lungs and physical condition.

The generators would also leak, and the ‘gas, grit and dirt’ that would come in a constant haze across the suburb of Richmond and decay the poorly built houses and would leave a cringe-worthy smell.

There was also no peace and quiet amongst those who lived there, so piece of mind was brought to the citizens when it closed down in the 20th century.

Gasworks

Health

A lack of sanitation and knowledge of personal hygiene brought seasonal, and in some cases fatal, diseases to the working-class who were left to fight them without treatment from a professional, due a lack of funds that it cost to even have a consultation with a doctor.

Even if the patient could afford the treatment fees, the knowledge on how to fight the disease had not been developed yet.

Until the introduction of vaccines, diseases such as whooping cough, tuberculosis and diphtheria were a common disruption to people’s lives in the slums.

These diseases caused the early deaths for many children and middle-aged to senior citizens.

By the 1870s, people worked out that sanitation and fumigation was the key to stopping the spread of the diseases. As soon as houses became disinfected, conditions in the slums improved dramatically and life expectancy went up rapidly.

Life expectancyThen Now

Men 55.2 77.64Women 58.4 83.52

Infant Mortality RateThen Now103.6/1000 4.63/1000