People Australia

Olaf Sawtell, 1955

State Library of New South Wales, GPO 2 - 06667

Sawtell, Olaf (‘Michael’ or Mick) (1883-1971) trade unionist, writer, lecturer and gaoled political agitator

Birth: 20 October 1883 at Adelaide, South Australia, son of native-born Charles Sawtell (1854-1936), optician, and Florence Arabella, née Hooper, born in India. Marriages: (1) 2 September 1919 at the registrar-general’s office, Adelaide, to native-born Elizabeth (Beth) Pole (1882-1971), a teacher. The marriage ended in divorce. (2) 2 May 1964 at the registrar-general’s office, Sydney, New South Wales, to Elsie Vanda Grant, née Idenden (1899-1984), a chiropodist, born at Croydon, Surrey, England. Death: 1 October 1971 in his usual residence at Kings Cross, Sydney. Religion: cremated with Catholic rites. 

• Educated at St Peters College. Worked as drover for Sir Sidney Kidman in 1899; in 1904-1910 worked in the Northern Territory and was in the Kimberley, Western Australia, as a drover and labourer about 1908.
• From 1909 he wrote letters to the Westralian Worker deploring the ill-treatment of Aborigines by squatters, urging the confinement on reserves as the solution to racial exploitation, and arguing for the displacement of Aboriginal labour by white labour in the pastoral industry. He supported the opening of Moola Bulla cattle station by the WA government in 1911-1912.
• In 1912 he was elected to the Australian Workers’ Union committee in Perth; named as secretary of the Rural Workers Union (federal union organised from Melbourne). In 1912 he was a member of WA Socialist Party; active among timber mill workers in south west of WA.
• Instrumental in establishment of the Boulder Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) local branch in late 1914 and damned both arbitration and the Australian Labor Party. Was an anti-conscriptionist, addressed meetings, and wrote for Direct Action.
• Was arrested near Carnarvon, WA, on a charge of 'seditious conspiracy'; was also charged with sending threatening letter to Senator J. Lynch. The charges were heard in October 1916. In January 1917 he was bound over for two years on a charge of seditious conspiracy. In March 1917 he was sentenced to six months hard labour for “threatening with intent”. From Fremantle prison he organised the defence of Monty Miller on a conspiracy charge.
• On his release in July 1917, he became a paid organiser for the IWW in Broken Hill. In August 1917 he was arrested as a member of the banned IWW and was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment with hard labour. Following a further arrest in November 1917 he served an 11-month jail sentence, including 7 months in solitary confinement.
• From April 1919 he was an organiser with the One Big Union movement in support of Fremantle free speech fight. He was a popular figure in Perth and was frequently called on to speak alongside John Curtin and other Labor figures. In 1919 he helped to establish Industrial Solidarity for the International Industrial Workers’ Union; subsequently he was an organiser for the Socialist Party to 1930.
• Settled in Sydney about 1924. Embraced Christianity and became involved with the Industrial Christian Fellowship. Established a health food shop and became a freelance writer and pamphleteer. In later life he became an outspoken anti-communist, supporting the Menzies’ Government’s Communist Party Dissolution Act, 1950-1951.
• Cause of death: cerebral artery insufficiency (4 months) and cerebral arteriosclerosis (years). 

Sources
H. J. Gibbney & Ann G. Smith, A Biographical Register 1788-1939, vol 2 (Canberra, 1987); Westralian Worker (Perth) 29 October 1909, 7 January, 6 May, 2 September 1910, 6, 13 & 27 January, 24 March 1911, 5 January, 9 February, 26 April 1912; Western Argus, 1 December 1914; WA Police Gazette, 1916-17; AEU Monthly Journal, June 1955; Menzies papers, NLA MSS 4936/2/63; Justina Williams, The First Furrough (Perth, 1976), pp 43, 53, 57-61; information from Frank Cain, 1992, and Andrew Gill, 1993.