Category: Obituaries

(2022) Large in Stature and Character: Peter McMahon

16 July 1931 – 13 March 2022

Peter McMahon, champion of garbologists – as he proudly said, local government union leader, NSW Upper House Labor politician, industrial tribunal member, historian, and community activist, had many significant achievements, including improving the lives of hundreds of thousands of employees, and recruiting Paul Keating to work as a young research officer for the Municipal Employees’ Union (MEU) before the budding politician propelled himself, aged 25, into the Federal parliament in 1969.

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(2021) Will-power, Wisdom, and Whimsy in Canberra

For fifty-seven years, James (“Jim”) Glen Service, “Mr Canberra”, banker, property expert and company director, was identified with most things commercial and cultural that happened in the national capital. Those who knew him found a tough-minded businessman, conscientious about “giving back”, with a wonderful sense of the absurd.

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From the Tribune negatives, ON 161/Item 72, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and courtesy of the Search Foundation, n.d., mid to late 1960s. Photo not published with the article.

(2020) Mundey’s Legacy

John Bernard “Jack” Mundey (1929-2000), conservationist, union leader, activist, was an unlikely hero. This article briefly summarises his life, achievements and, finally, reflects on lessons from a life that endured more disappointments than triumphs.

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(2020) Irish Migrant was Champion of Rail Workers: Jim Walshe, 1931-2020

Jim Walshe, rail unionist, Labor activist, superannuation reformer, keen golfer and family man, was born in Ballybunion in County Kerry, Ireland, a resort town known for its picturesque stretch of sand dunes overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, beaches, steep seaside cliffs, ruined castles, golf course, family farms and, in his early years, the rural poverty of Depression-era, newly independent Ireland.

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