The Murder of William ‘Billy’ McLean

Billy McLean was born near Koroit, Victoria. Like a lot of Victorian farmers with an AWU ticket, at the start of the national shearing season he and some mates would form a Victorian shearing gang, travel together up to Queensland (where the season started earlier than the southern states) and slowly move south from station to station, working their way home. It was a long season away from home, but the money would help them and their families through the rest of the year.

At the start of the 1894 shearing season, the main employer group the Pastoralists’ Union torn up an 1891 agreement with the Union, dictated that rates would be cut by 12.5%, and arranged to have New Zealand non-union shearers brought over to work at the reduced rate.

The AWU was determined to maintain the 1893 rates, and recommended in July 1894 to all members that they stick to the established rates. But all of this was before the existence of an arbitration system and paid rates awards. The battle over which rate to pay would be fought out shed by shed up and down the east coast of Australia.

In August 1894, Billy and his mates were part of a larger AWU camp at Wilcannia, far west NSW. They heard that non-union NZ workers had started shearing at the nearby “Grassmere” station. About 50 AWU members set out for Grassmere that evening after work, to persuade or force the blackleg workers staying at the shed to stick to union rates – in the language of the day, the AWU members wanted to “interview” the blacklegs. The pastoralists were forewarned and had the NSW Police there waiting in reserve.

On 26 August, Billy was the first Union man to enter the shed. Before he could say one word, he was shot by a blackleg shearer with a revolver. A second unionist Jack Murphy was also shot. Billy and Jack were carried away by their comrades, but both of them (and six other active strikers) were arrested the next day by the NSW Police, and all eight charged with “unlawful assembly”.

Billy, with a serious gunshot wound to his lung, was sentenced by Magistrate Charles Robertson to three years’ hard labour and sent to Goulburn Gaol. His wound never healed. The prison authorities became agitated at the likelihood that Billy would die in prison, and in late 1895 a Parramatta doctor recommended his release on urgent health grounds. After serving more than a year in a cell, he was sent home a fading invalid – once home, Billy never rose from what was to be his death bed. One small grace was that Billy was allowed to die in his own bed, which he did on 22 March 1896, some eighteen months after being shot. Despite the gunshot wound to his lung, Billy’s death was recorded as ‘pneumonia’. He was 26 years old.

The AWU and his family buried him at Tower Hill Cemetery near Koroit. The AWU established the McLean Memorial Fund, and branches across Australia contributed 90 pounds towards the construction of a monument (equivalent to three years’ workman’s wages at the time ) with any leftover funds to be sent to his widowed mother.

In the style of Victorian-era symbolism, Billy’s monument is broken column, representing a life cut short – it is inscribed to “A good son, a faithful mate, and a devoted unionist – Union is Strength”.

Billy’s monument at Tower Hill Cemetery

In 1936, a delegation of AWU leaders travelled to Billy’s grave as part of the union’s 50-year jubilee celebrations. The National Secretary at the time, Edward Grayndler, said Billy was “the first martyr of a barbarous system in vogue in the days when shearers were fighting for their rights.”

In 1930, the Westralian Worker reported the man who shot Billy was named simply ‘Baker’. He was never questioned by the Police or the Court, and no charges were ever laid for Billy’s murder.

While details on ‘Baker’ are scarce, we do know the NSW Pastoralists’ Union presented the blackleg shearer with a gold medallion for the “valour” displayed in shooting down an unarmed man.

David Cragg (1957-2025) was a dedicated unionist and member of the AWU Victorian Branch for 39 years, serving as an organiser, administrator and WorkCover officer from 1991-2009. He was then elected Assistant Secretary at the Victorian Trades Hall from 2009-2018.

David was also a keen historian, chronicling the AWU’s history in his retirement and was awarded Life Membership in 2023. David’s entry on the murder of William McLean is the final article to be published from his archive of union history.