After a general call-out to members of other unions in March 1891, arrests were made and in the following months many strike leaders were convicted of conspiracy. Almost all of the executive members of the Queensland Shearers Union were imprisoned. A number of those who were jailed later went on to become Members of Parliament. The most notable of those was Anderson Dawson who became Premier of Queensland in 1899. His premiership was a first for the Australian Labor Party as well as the first parliamentary socialist government anywhere in the world.
