People Australia

Joe Weir, n.d.

John Alexander ('Joe') Weir, also known as Weier (1904-1995) timberworker, trade union official and parliamentarian 

Birth: 11 October 1904 at Balmain, New South Wales, son of native-born parents Thomas Weier (1866-1929), woolclasser, later carter, and Rosina (Rose), née Thompson (1871-1944). Marriages: (1) 29 April 1925 at St Paul’s Anglican church, Cleveland Street, Sydney, to native-born Coral May Dudley (1907-1971). The marriage ended in divorce in October 1932. (2) 3 August 1935 at St Enoch’s Presbyterian Church, Newtown, Sydney, to native-born Thelma Irene Cox (1911-1978). They had one daughter and one son. Death: 4 December 1995 in hospital at Camperdown, Sydney. Religion: Buried with Uniting Church forms. 

• Started working in timber industry as groom stable boy at Langdon & Langdon in 1921, working in timber yard until General Strike of 1929 when he was out on strike for 12 months.
• Unemployed for a further 18 months. Started back in industry in 1931. Worked in joinery workshop of E. M. Utick in Pyrmont for much of his working life.
• Joined Australian Timber Workers' Union in 1922; was job delegate in 1933. Member of management committee of NSW branch 1933?-1941. Country organiser on North Coast for Timber Workers' Union in 1941-1943; State secretary from 1943 to 1993, president in 1950.
• Represented union before State and Federal Commissioners and Judges from 1943; delegate to Federal Council of Timber Workers' Union 1943; vice-president of union (Federal Office) in 1947 (or 1950) and federal president 1969.
• Joined Australian Labor Party in 1930 at Camperdown branch. Sometime president of Stanmore branch. Member of the NSW ALP’s central executive from 1932 to 1939 under J. T. Lang and from 1944 to 1958.
• Was an indirectly elected member of the NSW Legislative Council from 23 April 1949 until he retired on 23 April 1973. Served as temporary chairman of committee and chairman of the printing committee.
• Chairman of Disputes Committee ALP for twenty-five years. Member of the Review Tribunal of the ALP; sometime chairman. Was made a life member ALP, NSW branch, in 1979, nominated by the Australian Timberworkers' Union.
• Started weekly Talk on Radio 2KY in 1948. Was alternate delegate to NSW Trades and Labor Council (TLC), in 1930-1940 and regular delegate from 1946. Delegate to Newcastle TLC. Vice-president of NSW TLC in 1969-1975; member of disputes committee.
• Member of the executive of the Trades Hall Association of NSW from 1955 to 1978, trustee from 1958. Member of Trades Hall Committee from 1956.
• Australian representative to International Labour Organisation, Geneva, in 1958. Representative of Timber Workers' Union on ACTU from 1944. Represented NSW TLC on NSW Cancer Council from 1956 to about 1976. Represented NSW Cancer Council at Federal conference.
• Appointed member of Sydney Hospital Board from 1956 to about 1984 and was a director from 1957. Appointed to the convocation of Macquarie University when university was founded.
• Appointed member of the Order of Australia for service to trade unionism in January 1981 Was a boxer in his youth.

Sources
Heather Radi, Peter Spearritt & Elizabeth Hinton(eds), Biographical Register of the NSW Parliament 1901-1970 (Canberra, 1979) ; NSW Timber Worker, 21 November 1943, April 1985, Vol. 28 No. 1; (Information in alphabetical list attached to paper files in Butlin Archives, ANU).