Bronte Dooley
| Bronte Dooley | |
|---|---|
| Constituency | Geraldton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 4 July 1867 West Ham, Essex, England |
| Died | 19 October 1913 West Perth, Western Australia |
| Political party | Labor Party |
| Spouse(s) | Helen Watson |
| Profession | Railwayman/carriage builder |
| Religion | Catholic |
Bronterre Washington Dooley (4 July 1867—19 October 1913), known as Bronte Dooley, was an Australian politician, and a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 1911 until 1913 representing the seat of Geraldton for the Australian Labor Party. Prior to entering politics, he worked for the Labor cause for more than 20 years, including helping to organise the first elections in which the Australian Labor movement participated in New South Wales in 1891.
Dooley was born in West Ham, Essex to James Dooley, a storeman and stonemason, and Ann (née Harkin). The family moved to Sydney when he was young, and he was educated there before being apprenticed as a railway coach builder in 1884. Influenced by his father who was a prominent member of the Operative Stonemasons' Society in Sydney, Dooley joined the Sydney Coachbuilders' Society at the conclusion of his apprenticeship in 1888 and also became associated with the Sydney Socialist League. He married Annie Creo Stanley, who later became a trade union leader, on 29 March 1888 in Redfern, but he left her some time later and they officially divorced in March 1893.
In 1891, while a member of the Paddington Political Labor League, he assisted in organising Political Labor's campaign for the elections to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly—the first organised Labor campaign anywhere in Australia. The candidate in the four-member Paddington seat was George Dyson, a young compositor from Perth, Western Australia who came a close fifth and hence was defeated.
Following the election, a series of poor export conditions, busted land booms and failed financial institutions plunged much of eastern Australia into recession. Dooley obtained work as a prospector, miner, farm hand, shearer and carpenter in outback areas of Australia and in New Zealand before moving to Perth, Western Australia in 1897, where he became a coachbuilder for the Railways Department. In 1898, he became a foundation member of the state branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees, and took a leading role in obtaining official recognition for the body. Among his achievements were having a Railways Department regulation overturned which forbade political or municipal activity by employees, negotiating a complete classification for all waged staff in the railways. He also helped to negotiate an increase from 7s. to 8s. per day for fettlers, although this measure partly involved a strike which hampered railway traffic for over a week. He was a delegate for the Railway Society to the Trades and Labor Council in 1901–1902.
...
Wikipedia