George McCarthy is the brother of my great-grandmother Clarinda. I knew nothing about him until my family research unravelled his story. George was a publican, a Labor man and a fighter for worker’s rights.
George was born in Dubbo in 1885, though his family had no connections there. His father John was nomadic and I wrote about his wanderings in a previous blog post. When John married Eliza Fox in Young, New South Wales in 1877, her mother didn’t approve of the marriage, and the family moved from the town to Dubbo, then Peak Hill.
George’s mother Eliza died from liver cancer at age 35 in 1895. George was ten and him and his five siblings were sent back to Young to grow up with his mother’s family. Their father John McCarthy was not seen by the children again.
When old enough to work, George, with his cousin William Harris, became a shearer in a group known as the ‘bike rider shearers’ who rode around New South Wales from property to property. They rode across the state, following the shearing sheds until George met eighteen-year-old Violet Kelly at Burrowa, a town south-east of Young. Her parents owned a local hotel.
George and Violet were married in 1908 and moved to Cowra where George operated the Australian Hotel and was involved in local politics as a member of the Labor party. His first election attempt was the council election in March 1927 where he ran second to a local doctor. Later the same year he was in trouble with the law for keeping bars open after licensed hours at the hotel. In 1928, George was the Labor candidate for the State elections however he was also defeated.
In the 1930s, George moved his family to Sydney and started work with The Postmaster-General’s Department (PMG) as a PMG linesman. The PMG was established at the time of Federation in 1901 and was responsible for postal and telephone services across Australia. In 1932, George used his political experience and assisted with the PMG Linesman’s wage claim in the High Court in Melbourne. He argued and won the case against his opposing Queen’s Council.
By the 1940’s he was inspector of Post Office buildings and worked from an office at the Trades Hall in Pyrmont. In the 1950’s George was the organiser for the Postal Workers Union.
The family gathered for their 60th wedding anniversary in Sydney in 1968. There is evidence throughout his life that he remained in contact with his cousins in Young, the only one of his siblings to do so. George passed away in 1974 and is buried in Mona Vale Cemetery with Violet who passed away two years later.
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