The federal government has announced plans to nominate the historic site in far western outback NSW to be recognised on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The Victorian Trades Hall site in Melbourne will also be added to Australia's World Heritage Tentative List in an important step toward World Heritage status.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek says both trades halls have made a significant contribution to Australian society.
"Broken Hill Trades Hall is an extraordinary building in a city with extraordinary history," she said on Tuesday.
"Trades Hall has been a symbol of worker power, organising for better conditions, better wages and a better life for everyone in Broken Hill."
The heritage list hopeful sits in the heart of Broken Hill, its intricate stonework and Victorian facade cutting a stark figure against the 50s-style Australian bungalows that line the neighbouring streets.
The trades hall contains a significant collection of historical union artefacts that portray the story of Broken Hill as a centre of industrial action, union organisation and socialism.
It was also the first building in Australia to be owned and operated by unions.
Seminal industrial disputes like the 1892 Broken Hill miners' strike and other action in the 1900s are well remembered in the rural town, which itself was listed as a National Heritage site in 2015 for its rich history and ongoing mining operations.
Victorian Trades Hall is a bastion of union history, having birthed the Victorian Labor Party and the Australian Council of Trade Unions.
It continues to act as an organising space for workers' rights groups.
The government has committed $1.2 million to their Victorian and NSW counterparts to support the nominations.
The Workers Museum in Denmark is campaigning to have a selection of workers' assembly halls across the globe added to the heritage list.
10°C