31 January 1884   Trades and Labor Council

The first meeting of representatives of trade and labour societies, at which the Trades and Labor Council was formed, was held in the Bristol Tavern on 31 January 1884. Its objectives were:

          for the purpose of uniting more closely the various trade
          societies and for discussing unitedly any questions affecting the
          welfare of any society and also for the purpose of exerting more    
          political influence in the colony.
      

Meetings continued to be held in hotels until enough money was raised, through donations and loans, to buy land in Grote Street for £1200. On 30 July 1895 the first sod was turned on the site and the foundation stone was laid on 8 Hours Day, 2 September, that year by the Premier, Charles Cameron Kingston. The building was opened in a ceremony on 4 March 1896.

In the early 1900s Robert Barr Smith gave the Council £2300 to pay off its debt. Further money was raised to build additional accommodation, on land purchased in 1896, and this was called the Price Memorial Wing, in honour of Tom Price the first Labor Premier of South Australia. The new Trades Hall on South Terrace was officially opened by Premier Don Dunstan on 23 February 1972.

Newspaper Cuttings Book, Volume 2, p. 86. SLSA.
Jim Moss, Sound of Trumpets History of the Labor Movement in South Australia,  Wakefield Press, 1985.