The Workers by Blanche D’Alpuget and Oliver Strewe

The Workers

by Blanche D’Alpuget

Photographs by Oliver Strewe

Collins, 1987, [First Edition], ISBN 0002178095, colour photographs throughout, large hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, a little edge and shelf wear, a little rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, no inscriptions; dustjacket shows a little edge and shelf wear with a little rubbing, bumping chipping and small tears (see photographs)

“The Workers is about these contemporary Australians, who work hard and expect little, who prefer to be in a job – any job – than on the dole.  It is about battlers, people who treasure independence and self-reliance, who are resilient in the face of hardship, who expect the dice to be loaded, yet carry on…
In 1984 Sydney photographer Oliver Strewe set out to make a pictorial record of these people.  For over three years, he travelled the country photographing Australians at work.  The Workers is the result.  It portrays a broad cross-section of people whose very survival depends upon the hours they put in: rail workers on the Nullarbor, itinerant fruit pickers, coal miners, concrete gangs on the Hammersley line, women who rise at dawn to pick potatoes, men who shear 100 sheep a day.  All these people share the qualities of toughness and good humour and the dignity that comes from being close to the land.”