People Australia

Olive, Kathleen Mary (Kath), née Callaghan, late Bacon (1921-2022) scientist, feminist and Communist activist 

Birth: 17 May 1921 at Brisbane, Queensland, daughter of John Lawrence Callaghan (1882-1962), a public servant, born at Warwick, Queensland, and Florence Jane, née Jones (1881-1963), born at Hove, Sussex, England. Marriages: (1) 21 October 1942 to Queensland-born John William Bacon (1915-2000), a civilian transport driver, soldier then army officer. (2) 1971 at Newcastle to Douglas Charles Olive (1905-1985). They had one son and one daughter. Death: 25 December 2022 at Newcastle, New South Wales. 

• Kathleen Callaghan joined the Communist Party of Australia in Queensland, probably at the outbreak of World War II, as did her mother, Florence, who remained a member until her death.
• From September 1941 to March 1950 Kath’s first husband served in the army — in New Guinea during the war and then in the occupying forces in Japan. Kath lived at South Brisbane, and graduated Bachelor of Science from the University of Queensland on 7 May 1942, worked at the Royal Brisbane Hospital and was a member of the Association of Scientific workers.
• She also became a leader of the Eureka Youth League (EYL) in Queensland, established in late 1942. At a public meeting at Innisfail in 1945, as State secretary of the EYL, she urged improvement of educational facilities such as a university and an agricultural college in North Queensland.
• In 1948 she was a delegate to the East Asian Youth and Student Conference in India.
• Her marriage had ended by 1950. She moved to Newcastle about 1952 and was employed briefly as a laboratory assistant in geology at the University, then as a dietician at Newcastle Hospital. Later she worked in pathology. From 1965 to 1978 she was a senior officer in the blood bank.
• From the mid 1950s she lived with second husband, Douglas Charles Olive, at Belmont. They had moved to New Lambton by 1968, and then to Bull Street, Newcastle. From 1977 she lived at Shoal Bay. At some time she was a member of the CPA’s national committee. She visited China with her husband and other CPA veterans in September 1984.
• Kath Olive was active in the Newcastle branch of the Union of Australian Women and was associated with the Newcastle Women’s Liberation movement in the 1970s. From 1999 to 2004 she was a member of the Newcastle Older Women’s Network.
• She contributed occasional articles, often on scientific subjects, to the Tribune (Sydney), published a memoir, Geria & Other Tricks, and also contributed to two Newcastle Catchfire Press anthologies: J. M. Donald and J. C. Tregellis (eds), Through the Valley (2007) and Margaret Gibberd (ed.), People of the valley (2009).

Sources
Audrey Blake, The Eureka Youth League: a participant’s report, in Labour History, No. 42 May 1982, pp 100 & 102; oral history interview by Ken Mansell (1981-1983), MLOH 240, Item 17, Mitchell Library, State library of NSW; information from Jude Conway 2024.