Herbert Johnson

Who was Herbert Johnson?

Herbert Victor Johnson was an Australian politician.

Johnson was born in Northampton, Western Australia and educated at the local convent school. He worked as a shearer and became the first Western Australian shearer to join the Australian Workers' Union when it organized the shearers in 1908. In 1913 he married Ethel May Lucas. He is said to have "sheared 3761 sheep in 17½ days in 1914 – a world record at that time". As an AWU organizer, he worked hard to maintain the conditions of pastoral workers during the 1920s and 1930s. He was secretary of the Geraldton branch of the Australian Labor Party from 1920 to 1934. In 1936, he was elected state secretary of the AWU and moved to the Perth suburb of Highgate.