The Australian shearers' strike had spread quickly, and central Queensland is on the brink of civil war from February until May.

Striking shearers form armed camps outside of towns.

Thousands of armed soldiers protect non-union labor and arrested strike leaders.

The unionists retaliate by raiding shearing sheds, harassing non-union labor and committing acts of sabotage, although the incidents of actual violence or arson are few.

One of the first May Day marches in the world takes place during the strike on May 1, 1891 in Barcaldine.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that thirteen hundred and forty men took part, of whom six hundred and eighteen were mounted on horse.

Banners carried include those of the Australian Labor Federation, the Shearers' and Carriers' Unions, and one inscribed 'Young Australia'.

The leaders wear blue sashes and the Eureka Flag is carried.

The "Labor Bulletin" reportes that cheers were given for "the Union", "the Eight-hour day", "the Strike Committee" and "the boys in gaol", but the shearers are unable to hold out.

The summer had been unseasonably wet, and the strike is poorly timed for maximum effect on the shearing season (winter).

By May the union camps are full of hungry penniless shearers.

The strike has been broken.

The squatters have won this time, but it had proved a costly exercise.

Thirteen union leaders are charged with sedition and conspiracy, taken to Rockhampton for the trial, convicted, and sentenced to three years in jail on St. Helena Island Prison.

The 1891 shearers' strike is credited as being one of the factors for the formation of the Australian Labor Party.

Three of those imprisoned (William Hamilton, Julian Stuart, and George Taylor) will later become Labor members of parliament—Hamilton in Queensland and the other two in Western Australia.

Henry Lawson's well known poem, Freedom on the Wallaby, is written as a comment on the strike and published by William Lane in the Worker in Brisbane, May 16, 1891, and Lane will write his novel in 1892, The workingman's paradise, with two aims: to support fundraising efforts for the imprisoned unionists, and to explain unionism and socialism to those who will listen. 

Banjo Paterson's song Waltzing Matilda, an unofficial Australian anthem, is also written about this era of shearers' industrial disputes in Queensland.