People Australia

Sidney James Patrick Vaughan (also known as Sydney) (1924-1990) painter, trade union official and community activist

Birth: 27 June 1924 at Casino, New South Wales, son of native-born parents James Patrick Francis Vaughan (1884-1953), a labourer and horse trainer, and Mary Jane Priscilla, née Evans (1883-1957). Marriage: 1948 at Rockdale, Sydney, to Heather Ferguson (1928-2011), a clerk. They had two daughters and one son. Death: 10 March 1990 at Bankstown Hospital, usual residence Alamein Road, Revesby Heights, Sydney. Religion: Catholic [Service Record]. 

• His birth and death registrations gave his first name as Sidney. In electoral rolls and on his marriage registration it is given as Sydney.
• Was a labourer at Casino when, putting his date of birth back by several years (giving his date of birth as 27 April 1920), he enlisted for full time duty in the Citizens Military Forces on 11 June 1941. Transferred to the Australian Imperial Force on 12 October 1942. Served with the 2nd 1st Pioneer Battalion in New Guinea from 1942 to 1943, and in Borneo from 1945 to January 1946. Was discharged on 28 March 1946.
• Worked as a painter and lived at Rockdale, NSW, in 1949.
• Trade union official from 1954 to 1990. Secretary of influential Building Trades Group in NSW Trades and Labor Council from 1969.
• Prominent in Green Bans movement of 1970s, disseminating State Planning Authority documents to Battlers for Kelly’s Bush.
• Active in wages, safety, compensation, and anti-Vietnam campaigns.
• National president of the Operative Painters’ and Decorators’ Union from 1980 to 1990 and NSW president of the same union. Was a some-time member of the Housing Commission of NSW, and a member of the NSW Builders Licencing Board until September 1986.
• Cause of death: myocardial infarction (instantly), atherosclerosis (20 years), hypertension (15) years and diabetes (12 months).

Sources
Sydney Morning Herald, 13 March 1990; Meredith Burgmann and Verity Burgmann, Green bans, red union: environmental activism and the New South Wales Builders Labourers’ Federation (Sydney,1998); Workers Online, March 2004.