The Australian Labor party was established in a small town in mid Qld, Bercaldine.
It was formed by a group of very disgruntled shearers who were trying to get better conditions for the back breaking job they did, so a large group went on strike to pressure the Pastoralist to listen to their requests.
Instead, the Pastoralists brought in others who were less skilled and not part of the striking shearer group ..... all hell broke out in the main street of Barcaldine and the end the bloodshed, a group formed under a large tree out of the sun, later celled the Tree Of Knowledge, and formed a political party to fight for the rights of workers.
These people were not particularly well educated, when the paperwork was drawn up and the officials and supporters signed it, no one realised the spelling was wrong, until it was too late, so it has been the Labor Party ever since.
At the moment, they are the only party strong enough to govern in their own right, the Liberal Party is virtually non existent and the National Party (the party that was formed by the Pastoralists, extremely conservative) only hold 8 seats
For quite some time, the Nationals and the Liberal party formed a coalition and held power for a while, now even the cross benchers out number them in seats held in the parliament by coalition parties independently, if you consider the Qld Liberal National Party (LNP) 16 seats, and the Nationals 8 seats, the Liberals 18 seats, without them forming a coalition, the opposition party would be the Liberals, the Qld LNP and the Nats would be cross benchers .....
The Australian Labor Party (ALP) could hardly be considered a cowboy outfit .....
T1 Terry