King O'Malley

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King O'Malley

King O'Malley (July 1854 - December 20, 1953 in Melbourne ) was an Australian politician . The member of the Australian Labor Party is considered one of the most colorful political figures in Australia of the early 20th century and was Minister of the Interior from 1910 to 1913 and from 1915 to 1916. He was instrumental in ensuring that Canberra was and was determined as the location of the future capital the impetus for the establishment of the state-owned Commonwealth Bank (privatized since 1996).

Mysterious origin

O'Malley's date and place of birth are not known for certain. His biographers Larry Noye and Arthur Hoyle say he was born on July 2nd. He himself mentioned July 3rd or 4th. All his life, O'Malley insisted that he was born on Stanford Farm in the Eastern Townships in the Canadian province of Québec and was therefore subject to the British Crown . More likely is that he on his parents' farm in Valley Falls in the US state of Kansas was born. According to his own statements, his parents were named William and Mary (née King) O'Malley. It is unlikely that "King O'Malley" was his real name. Exact information about his origin cannot be found because he was never recorded in the US census before he emigrated to Australia.

Emigration and Politics

O'Malley attended elementary school in New York City and then worked in his uncle's bank. From 1880 he worked as an insurance agent and real estate agent, traveling across the United States . In 1881 he married Rosy Wilmot, who died five years later. In October 1888 he emigrated to Australia, probably to escape debt. There he also worked as an insurance agent and moved frequently because of his professional activity. He also preached evangelical Christianity and moderation .

From 1895 he lived in Gawler in South Australia . A year later he was elected to represent the radical democrats in the South Australia House of Representatives. To be recognized as eligible to vote, he had to be a British subject; therefore he stated that he was born in Canada but raised in the United States. He was a staunch opponent of the wealthy landowners who dominated the colony's politics at the time. O'Malley was voted out of office in 1899 and moved to Tasmania the following year . The tall, fashionably dressed North American with a full beard, who preached the gospel and radical democracy, caused a sensation there. In 1901 he was elected one of the five Tasmanian MPs in the newly created House of Representatives. In the same year he joined the Australian Labor Party .

O'Malley was one of the more prominent and conspicuous MPs, but his radical ideas met with little support and many considered him a charlatan. He campaigned in vain for the establishment of a central bank to provide cheap loans to farmers and small businessmen - one of the most common populist demands of the early 20th century. He was not represented in the government of Chris Watson (from 1904), nor in the first government of Andrew Fisher (from 1908). But in April 1910 the party assembly elected him Minister of the Interior in Fisher's second government. In the same year he married Amy Garrod.

Interior minister

King O'Malley breaks the first survey post in Canberra

As Home Secretary, O'Malley played a significant role in the selection process for the location of the new capital and campaigned for Canberra . He also chose the winner of the design competition, the American architect Walter Burley Griffin . On February 20, 1913, he smashed the first surveying post and a few weeks later, on March 12, he was present at the official city baptism. As a staunch abstainer , he was responsible for introducing the extremely unpopular alcohol prohibition in the Australian Capital Territory . He also laid the foundation stone for the Trans- Australian Railroad from Port Augusta to Perth .

O'Malley's demands led to the creation of the Commonwealth Bank , a state savings and investment bank , in 1911 (though not solely responsible for it, as he always claimed in later years). Another legacy of O'Malleys was the spelling of the party name, with "laboratory" in the American style. He was a supporter of the spelling reform and convinced the party that “Labor” looked more modern than the “Labor” common in British English. The American spelling could not establish itself in Australia, but the term "laboratory" remained.

The Labor Party was defeated in the June 1913 elections. When she came back to power in October 1914, O'Malley was not a member of the government. In October 1915, however, Andrew Fisher resigned and O'Malley became Home Secretary again in the first Billy Hughes administration . Just a year later, he fell out with the Prime Minister. Hughes wanted the military to introduce to the United Kingdom in World War I to support. O'Malley resigned in protest and became a fierce opponent of conscription.

Hughes called new elections in May 1917 and O'Malley was defeated by a candidate from the Nationalist Party of Australia in his Tasmanian constituency . He ran again in 1919 and 1922, but failed to be elected on both occasions. At the time of his defeat he was 59 years old; he moved to Melbourne and spent much of his time making himself a living legend - particularly his role in founding the Commonwealth Bank - and writing polemical newspaper articles. When he died at the age of 99, he was the last surviving member of the first all-Australian parliament and received a state funeral.

Aftermath

O'Malley played an important role in the development of the capital Canberra, which is why the O'Malley district is named after him. A pub in Canberra, King O'Malley's Irish Pub in the city center, also bears his name . However, this should be understood as an ironic allusion to the unpopular alcohol ban in the Australian Capital Territory, which was only lifted in 1928. He is also the main character in the musical The Legend of King O'Malley by Bob Ellis and Michael Boddy.

His fortune and that of his second wife, who died in 1958, were transferred to the King & Amy O'Malley Trust , a foundation that awards 30 grants each year to students of household science.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ King O'Malley cheery at 99 . In: The Sydney Morning Herald . July 4, 1953, p. 1 (accessed March 12, 2013).
personal data
SURNAME O'Malley, King
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian politician
DATE OF BIRTH July 1854
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1953
Place of death Melbourne