People Australia

Doug Olive, n.d.

Tribune (Sydney), 30 January 1985, p 12

Douglas Charles Harry (Doug) Olive (1905-1985) railway worker, trade union official, Communist district secretary

Birth: 16 February 1905 at Pymble, New South Wales, son of William James (Billy) Olive (1869-1957) a blacksmith, born at Kyneton, Victoria, and Emily, née Denny (1869-1934), born at Yass, NSW. Marriages: (1) 8 December 1931 in Queensland, to Muriel Lila Warner (1911-1994) They had a daughter and a son. (2) 1971 at Newcastle to Kathleen Mary Bacon, née Callaghan. They had a son and a daughter. Death: 2 January 1985 in Mater Misericordiae Hospital at Waratah, Newcastle, NSW; usual residence Estelle Street, Maryville, Newcastle. 

• Left home aged 18 to work on railways. Made contact with the Industrial Workers of the World during a strike at a railway camp between Kyogle and the Queensland border.
• In the early 1930s he was an itinerant worker on the Queensland cane fields. Joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in 1931, becoming secretary of the Ayr branch and a forceful public speaker. Active in CPA rank and file campaign within the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) in the early 1930s, including Militant Minority Movement.
• Active in 1935 Queensland sugar (Weils Disease) strike and 1935 Burdekin sugar strike. Prominent in formation of Spanish Relief organisation established in 1935. That year stood as CPA candidate for State seat of Mundingburra.
• Expelled from AWU 1938 by Townsville District secretary Tom Dougherty, after being elected secretary of rank and file Burdekin area committee.
• Went to Sydney in 1943 to work for CPA Central Committee on northern industrial committee.
• Actively involved in 1948 Queensland rail strike, Queensland meat workers strike 1946, and national coal strike 1949. Wrote The Queensland railway strike, February-April 1948 (Brisbane, [1948]).
• Subsequently worked full time for CPA in Sydney. In 1952 became party's Newcastle District secretary, retaining position for ten years. Visited the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and the People's Republic of China in 1962 and revisited China in 1984.
• Was endorsed CPA candidate for State seat of Kahibah in 1953 and the Federal seat of Newcastle in 1954. His second wife Kath was also a prominent CPA member, as were his brothers Arthur and Jack.
• Cause of death: chronic lymphatic leukaemia (4 years).

Sources
Sixty Years of Struggle, vol.1, 1981; Tribune, 7 April 1954 & 30 January 1985.