People Australia

Ron Maxwell, n.d.

ANU Archives, 1885/260037

Ronald Alexander (Ron) Maxwell (1911-2009) waterside worker, trade union official, alderman 

Birth: 14 September 1911 in Barcoo area West Queensland, son of Thomas John Maxwell (1883-1972), a casual railway worker, later wharf labourer, born at Lanchester, Durham, England, and native-born Hedwig Rosina, née Stephan (1880-1970). Marriage: 4 September 1935 in Queensland to Dorothy May (Dorrie) Stanley. Death: 14 June 2009. 

• Family moved to Rockhampton, Queensland, when Ron was very young. His father, prominent in opposition to conscription in 1916-1917, was for forty-six years a member of the Rockhampton branch of the Waterside Workers’ Federation (WWF) and for many years its president.
• At the age of 13, Ron left school at Rockhampton to work as a messenger boy for a large store. Was dismissed when he refused to ride the store’s dilapidated bicycle supplied for the job. Moved to Portland Downs in the Barcoo area and worked on a sheep station as a house boy.
• Worked on the Rockhampton waterfront in odd jobs and joined the local branch of the Waterside Workers’ Federation in 1936. Became active in organising the picnic and in leafleting for Federal and State elections.
• Transferred to the Sydney waterfront in 1941. Delegate for WWF; vice-president of Sydney branch from 1948 until he retired in 1976. Port Equalisation Officer at SEAL, WWF, from 1967 to 1976.
• Associated with gains on the waterfront such as the introduction in 1943 of the gang rotary system, instead of the bull and free selection systems for hiring workers in and the consolidation of central pay to avoid collecting pay from several companies in 1946 and improved in 1951.
• President of Sydney branch WWF Rugby League Club 1952. Appointed Justice of the Peace. Lived at Darlinghurst in the 1950s.
• In 1953 he and Tom Wright were elected as alderman on Sydney City Council – the first Communists elected to that body. He left the council in 1956. CPA candidate for the State seat of King in 1956 and 1959 and Federal seat of West Sydney in 1961.
• In retirement from 1976 he wrote a series of articles for the Maritime Worker, 1978-1979, mostly pertaining to the history of Sydney branch of the WWF and events in which he participated from the 1940s onwards.
• His brother Colin Maxwell (1921-2004), of Rockhampton, a militant United Candidate, was elected district secretary of the Australian Meat Industry Employees’ Union (Queensland branch) in 1953.

Sources
Playford Thesis, p.426; Tribune, 22 February 1956 p.6 No. 935; Maritime Worker Melbourne), 13 June 1972, 30 November 1976, p 16, 28 March 1978, p 16, 18 April 1978, p 16, 20 June 1978, p 12, 11 July 1978 p 12, 1 August 1978 p 15, 24 October 1978, p 11, 14 November 1978, p 14, 28 November 1978, p 16, 6 March 1979, p 27, 17 April 1979, p 27, 8 May 1979, p 19, 19 June 1979, p 29.