Getting A Handle On It
How Farm Workers Eased Their Heavy Load
In the late 19th and early 20th century, as the availability of workers for labour-intensive farming increased, the planting of wheat and other grains became more prevalent. When the season for reaping came around, agricultural workers packed wheat, maize (corn), and other grains into jute sacks, usually imported from India. Handling the bags, which weighed up to 80 Kg, was physically grueling work. When full, each one was a dead weight, with workers relying on simple handles like these to help lift, carry, load, and unload them.
Mindful of the manpower needed to move them once full, workers would hook the bags onto a harvester and fill them by hand to control the weight. Afterwards, the bags were piled up in the fields and teams of skilled ‘bag-sewers’ sewed them shut using jute or hemp twine and long needles. The bag-sewers would often work in teams during the cool summer evenings after finishing their regular jobs. They wore leather guards on their hands to help push needles through the fabric if the fibres were tough.
The quality of the sacks could vary greatly, and the fibre’s condition depended on the climate in which it was grown and the way it was subsequently stored. The cost of the sacks often fluctuated, depending on the jute growing season in India and local demand for sacks. This uncertainty led some entrepreneurial farmers to buy sacks in bulk when prices were low, then sell them when prices went up—a bit like modern-day futures trading.
As Australia’s primary industries went from strength to strength, Queensland farmers whose land was unsuitable for growing sugar cane petitioned the government to invest in local jute production to support the booming demand for grain and wool sacks.
Once filled and securely sewn, sacks were stacked at railway stations by workers known as ‘lumpers,’ ready for transport to mills or ports for export. These wooden handles may seem rudimentary now, but they were an essential tool for protecting workers from injury – an early attempt to introduce workplace safety into the physically punishing agricultural sector.
