People Australia

Francis Augustus Dunleavy (1879-1953) coalminer, trade union leader and industrial inspector 

Birth: 9 June 1879 at Mount Bischoff, Tasmania, son of John Sampson Dunleavy, coalminer, and Anne, née Corke. Marriage: 22 July 1905 at Pitt Street Unitarian Church, Sydney, New South Wales, to Ada Leah Gaudry. They had one daughter and one son. Death: 14 February 1953 at Carlton, Sydney. Religion: Anglican.

• Coalminer at Helensburgh, NSW, by 1906.
• Secretary, Illawarra Colliery Employees' Association/Southern District Federated Coal and Shale Workers' Association (C&SWA) 1907-1908; president 1909-1911. Critical of Peter Bowling's leadership of 1909 coal strike, declaring that the strike had been ordered at "an inopportune time" and "not on a good cause". In urging an end to the strike, charged Western District representative Edward Truscott with seeking to keep mines idle in order to benefit own members.
• After strike spoke out against Federated C&SWA, urging Illawarra miners to affiliate with the Sydney Labour Council "rather than Newcastle". Union representative on Conciliation Board set up after 1909 strike.
• In 1911, after extended absence from employment at Helensburgh mine through union duties and ill-health, was refused further employment, a situation which protracted negotiations and legal action failed to reverse. Placed on victimisation pay and employed briefly as full-time district president but resigned June 1911.
• Continued on Conciliation Board until its abolition in same year following his claim that the board was "farcical".
• Was an industrial inspector, living in Carlton, Sydney, by 1913. Retired from public service as superintending inspector of factories and shops in September 1943.
• Died of coronary occlusion, coronary atheroma and arteriosclerosis.

Resources
Robin Gollan, The coalminers of New South Wales: a history of the Union (Melbourne, 1963); Edgar Ross, A history of the Miners' Federation of Australia ([Sydney] 1970).