A house, a family and politics
Dec. 14th, 2008 06:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithWe had that conversation again yesterday -- the one about Australian history and why isn't it better known (and if my mother is involved now includes a comparison between Jesse James and Johnny Gilbert) that usually takes places after an encounter with some little known but interesting aspect of Australia's past.
Yesterday, it was a visit to Home Hill, once home to the only Tasmania-born Prime Minister Joseph Lyons, his wife Enid and their 11 children. And that is everything that is generally known about Joe, other than some family connection to Stanley and maybe an occasional mention in regards to Depression-era politics. Which is a pity because, like many of these things, when you find out the larger story, it's interesting.
This story can start with Michael Lyons, an Irish immigrant who lived in Stanley up on the far north-west coast. In 1887 he put all his money on a horse that didn't win the Melbourne Cup. After this he had a breakdown, and his wife and eight children had to find some way to support themselves, this included the nine year-old taking on various small jobs, including being a printer's devil. Fortunately for the boy, a couple of his aunts thought he had more potential than that and paid for him to the State school. After a few years of this, he became a monitor, then a pupil-teacher and then a trained teacher.
In the years after this, he had frequent clashes with the Education department, of which Lyons was rather critical. Until 1909, when he stood for state parliament in the seat of Wilmot. At Home Hill there's a photo of him on the bicycle he used while campaigning in the rather large rural electorate of Wilmot (from Devonport down to New Norfolk and across to Beaconsfield, although I think now, as Lyons, it covers an even larger area, not a fun electorate to campaign across). The online Australia Dictionary of Biography says "He campaigned vigorously. Horsewhipped by a local landholder whom he had criticized, Lyons was awarded damages and believed that the incident enabled him to win the election. In parliament he at first was inclined to talk too much and seemed to take himself too seriously. The Labor caucus lacked talent, and Lyons took a lead, concentrating on educational issues such as the need for post-primary state schools and equal pay for women teachers. He urged the breaking up of big estates, factory legislation, free education and medical treatment for children, a state-controlled medical scheme, aid for small farmers and reform of the Legislative Council." I'll skip most of the politics, interesting though it actually is in places. (If anyone is interested, the ADB entry goes into some details, as does the National Archives' Prime Ministers web site. Although I will note the following, again from the ADB "Lyons always abhorred violence, opposing capital punishment and refusing to participate in wartime recruiting, although he respected volunteers. He campaigned strongly for a 'No' vote in the conscription referenda of 1916-17, arguing that there was no moral right to vote away another's life." The anti-war sentiments during the First World, especially among Irish-Australians being another of those areas that don't get much airtime.
More importantly to the story, in 1915 Joe married a young trainee-teacher Enid Burnell. She was 17, he was 35 and Catholic. Her parents weren't overly impressed, but he was the Minister for Eduction, and just a few months later, Premier of Tasmania and again in 1923.
After that, well I'll cheat and copy some more for the ADB, "Losing the premiership and offside with sections of his party, Lyons was undecided about his future. He made soundings for appointment as a Federal arbitration commissioner. With the backing of the influential Hobart Mercury, he considered standing for the Senate, but at the request of the Federal A.L.P. leader, James Scullin, he stood for the Federal seat of Wilmot and won convincingly at the elections in October 1929."
Now this into getting into the Depression era. The politics at this time are interesting, yes, but bloody hard to follow. There are two bits that are relevant to this story: the first I've read about elsewhere -- that Australia was particularly hard hit during the Depression because of its then heavy reliance on agricultural exports (read: wool) but was also one of the first countries to recover; and, as was pointed out yesterday, who was Prime Minister during this time of recovery?
The second relevant thing about politics at this time is the apparent discord in the Labor party who at the time were in power. Focusing on Joe Lyons, he seems to have ongoing disagreements with his Labor colleagues but was well thought of by the opposition Nationalist Party. So it's not surprising that he ended up forming another party with members from both ALP, the Nationalists (including Rovert Menzies) and some indepents -- the possibly badly-named United Australia Party. From Wikipedia this time, "Lyons and the UAP offered stable, orthodox financial policies, and portrayed an image of putting national unity above class conflict (given credibility by Lyons, a man of working-class, Labor background, leading a conservative, largely middle and upper class party), while the Labor party remained split between the official party and the Langites. The result was a huge victory for the UAP. The new government was sworn in January 1932."
Lyons has the unfortunate claim to be being the first Prime Minister to die in office. In 1939, he was heading to Sydney on his way home to Devonport to spend Easter with his family when he had a heart attack and died a couple of days later. The story we were told yesterday was that Enid was home in Devonport at the time(and the usual way of getting to Sydney, via boat and then train wouldn't have got her to Sydney before Joe died) but BHP (?) happened to have a plane down in Tasmania at the time and they offered it to her so she could fly to Melbourne, and therefore made it to the hospital in time.
His body was returned to Devonport, apparently despite complaints from Canberra, and buried there, with a lot of mourning I'm sure, as he was, still is I guess, one of our most popular PMs. Without Lyons holding it together, the UAP quickly broke up or, depending on who is telling the story, became the Liberal Party, under Menzie's leadership
The story doesn't end there though. Four years later, Enid, still in her forties and a widow with a large family (the youngest was 10), became the first woman to be elected to the House of Representatives (under John Curtin, ALP). At the same election, Dorothy Tangney became the first woman elected to the Senate. A few years later, Enid became the first woman in Cabinet (under Menzies). She wrote a book about her experiences in the male world of Federal politics Among the Carrion Crows. She died at Home Hill in 1981 and the house has been left almost as it was when she lived there (with some minor changes such as replacing a rug that wore out). On the surface, it's a monument to her husband who'd died more than 40 years before her, but it's very obviously her home as well.
Yesterday, it was a visit to Home Hill, once home to the only Tasmania-born Prime Minister Joseph Lyons, his wife Enid and their 11 children. And that is everything that is generally known about Joe, other than some family connection to Stanley and maybe an occasional mention in regards to Depression-era politics. Which is a pity because, like many of these things, when you find out the larger story, it's interesting.
This story can start with Michael Lyons, an Irish immigrant who lived in Stanley up on the far north-west coast. In 1887 he put all his money on a horse that didn't win the Melbourne Cup. After this he had a breakdown, and his wife and eight children had to find some way to support themselves, this included the nine year-old taking on various small jobs, including being a printer's devil. Fortunately for the boy, a couple of his aunts thought he had more potential than that and paid for him to the State school. After a few years of this, he became a monitor, then a pupil-teacher and then a trained teacher.
In the years after this, he had frequent clashes with the Education department, of which Lyons was rather critical. Until 1909, when he stood for state parliament in the seat of Wilmot. At Home Hill there's a photo of him on the bicycle he used while campaigning in the rather large rural electorate of Wilmot (from Devonport down to New Norfolk and across to Beaconsfield, although I think now, as Lyons, it covers an even larger area, not a fun electorate to campaign across). The online Australia Dictionary of Biography says "He campaigned vigorously. Horsewhipped by a local landholder whom he had criticized, Lyons was awarded damages and believed that the incident enabled him to win the election. In parliament he at first was inclined to talk too much and seemed to take himself too seriously. The Labor caucus lacked talent, and Lyons took a lead, concentrating on educational issues such as the need for post-primary state schools and equal pay for women teachers. He urged the breaking up of big estates, factory legislation, free education and medical treatment for children, a state-controlled medical scheme, aid for small farmers and reform of the Legislative Council." I'll skip most of the politics, interesting though it actually is in places. (If anyone is interested, the ADB entry goes into some details, as does the National Archives' Prime Ministers web site. Although I will note the following, again from the ADB "Lyons always abhorred violence, opposing capital punishment and refusing to participate in wartime recruiting, although he respected volunteers. He campaigned strongly for a 'No' vote in the conscription referenda of 1916-17, arguing that there was no moral right to vote away another's life." The anti-war sentiments during the First World, especially among Irish-Australians being another of those areas that don't get much airtime.
More importantly to the story, in 1915 Joe married a young trainee-teacher Enid Burnell. She was 17, he was 35 and Catholic. Her parents weren't overly impressed, but he was the Minister for Eduction, and just a few months later, Premier of Tasmania and again in 1923.
After that, well I'll cheat and copy some more for the ADB, "Losing the premiership and offside with sections of his party, Lyons was undecided about his future. He made soundings for appointment as a Federal arbitration commissioner. With the backing of the influential Hobart Mercury, he considered standing for the Senate, but at the request of the Federal A.L.P. leader, James Scullin, he stood for the Federal seat of Wilmot and won convincingly at the elections in October 1929."
Now this into getting into the Depression era. The politics at this time are interesting, yes, but bloody hard to follow. There are two bits that are relevant to this story: the first I've read about elsewhere -- that Australia was particularly hard hit during the Depression because of its then heavy reliance on agricultural exports (read: wool) but was also one of the first countries to recover; and, as was pointed out yesterday, who was Prime Minister during this time of recovery?
The second relevant thing about politics at this time is the apparent discord in the Labor party who at the time were in power. Focusing on Joe Lyons, he seems to have ongoing disagreements with his Labor colleagues but was well thought of by the opposition Nationalist Party. So it's not surprising that he ended up forming another party with members from both ALP, the Nationalists (including Rovert Menzies) and some indepents -- the possibly badly-named United Australia Party. From Wikipedia this time, "Lyons and the UAP offered stable, orthodox financial policies, and portrayed an image of putting national unity above class conflict (given credibility by Lyons, a man of working-class, Labor background, leading a conservative, largely middle and upper class party), while the Labor party remained split between the official party and the Langites. The result was a huge victory for the UAP. The new government was sworn in January 1932."
Lyons has the unfortunate claim to be being the first Prime Minister to die in office. In 1939, he was heading to Sydney on his way home to Devonport to spend Easter with his family when he had a heart attack and died a couple of days later. The story we were told yesterday was that Enid was home in Devonport at the time(and the usual way of getting to Sydney, via boat and then train wouldn't have got her to Sydney before Joe died) but BHP (?) happened to have a plane down in Tasmania at the time and they offered it to her so she could fly to Melbourne, and therefore made it to the hospital in time.
His body was returned to Devonport, apparently despite complaints from Canberra, and buried there, with a lot of mourning I'm sure, as he was, still is I guess, one of our most popular PMs. Without Lyons holding it together, the UAP quickly broke up or, depending on who is telling the story, became the Liberal Party, under Menzie's leadership
The story doesn't end there though. Four years later, Enid, still in her forties and a widow with a large family (the youngest was 10), became the first woman to be elected to the House of Representatives (under John Curtin, ALP). At the same election, Dorothy Tangney became the first woman elected to the Senate. A few years later, Enid became the first woman in Cabinet (under Menzies). She wrote a book about her experiences in the male world of Federal politics Among the Carrion Crows. She died at Home Hill in 1981 and the house has been left almost as it was when she lived there (with some minor changes such as replacing a rug that wore out). On the surface, it's a monument to her husband who'd died more than 40 years before her, but it's very obviously her home as well.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-14 10:52 pm (UTC)Women in power?