Obituaries Australia

The last remaining link with the beginning of the political Labor Movement in Queensland was broken last week when the former Secretary of the Printing Industry Employees' Union of Australia, W. P. [William Parry] Colborne, passed peacefully away in Brisbane at the age of 86.

'Bill' Colborne, who retired from the Secretaryship of the P.L.E.U. in March, 1939, after 36 years' service in that position, was, with the late Albert Hinchcliffe, the first officially endorsed Labor candidate to stand for Parliament. That was before the great Maritime Strike, and before the big pastoral upheavals in '90 and '91, which gave birth to our great Movement, and from which such a great impetus was given to all our working class organisations.

Bill Colborne was a former President of the Queensland Trades and Labor Council, of which he was a representative at several historical Intercolonial and Interstate Conferences. He was prominently associated with the 1912 strike in Brisbane, and was a member of the Legislative Council, which he helped by his vote to abolish.

He was of a very kindly and generous disposition, and particularly in the early days he was worth his weight in gold to the Cause which he espoused. He never for a moment wavered in his principles, and was at all times loyal and reliable.

He is survived by his wife and a family of four sons and two daughters, and his name will always be associated with the early days as one of our unobtrusive, illustrious pioneers.