[3] The Tree of Knowledge was a ghost gum located in front of the Barcaldine railway station under which the workers of the 1891 Shearer's Strike met.

Large sheep stations were like small townships with their own working facilities, stores, worker's accommodation and tradesmen such as blacksmiths.

The owners and managers of these stations had considerable power to dictate terms to an itinerant workforce of sheep shearers recruited for the shearing season.

Poor working conditions, low pay and the threat of competition from cheap foreign labour caused discontent within the industry.

Difficulties in finding work and financial hardship helped to build a sense of mateship and mutual support amongst sections of them.

By January 1891 union representatives had gathered at Barcaldine for meetings and pastoralists were pressing shearers to sign freedom of contract forms.

[4][2] The Queensland Government dispatched police and soldiers to the area and the strikers responded by drilling and staging torchlight processions in the town.

[2][5] The manifesto is considered one of the foundation documents of the current Australian Labor Party[6] and is now held by the State Library of Queensland.

[8] Because the area beneath the Tree of Knowledge was the scene of actions and decisions which had a profound effect on the future of labour and politics in Australia, it has become an icon of the Labor Party and Trades Unions.

The Tree of Knowledge is a ghost gum (Corymbia aparrerinja[17]) situated outside the railway station in the main street of Barcaldine.

[2]The Tree of Knowledge is protected by a modern metal fence and the area surrounding it is bordered by a low rail composed of evenly spaced lengths of log and is landscaped with flowering shrubs.

This area also contains a flagpole and a bronze and granite monument symbolising shear blades which was erected in 1991 to commemorate the centenary of the Shearer's Strike.

The Tree of Knowledge was a key site during the Shearer's Strike in 1891, a confrontation between capital and labour that was a major event in Queensland's history.

The Tree of Knowledge has a special association with the history of the Australian Labor Party and with the Trades Union movement in Queensland.