Obituaries Australia

Dick Riordan, n.d.

After a long and serious illness, and soon following the granting of six months' leave absence from Cabinet, the Queensland Minister for Mines and Immigration, Mr. Ernest Joseph Riordan, M.L.A., died at his home at Ashgrove at 7.50 p.m. last Thursday.

A.W.U. Branch Secretary, Mr. Harold Boland, was one of the pall bearers at the State funeral last Saturday.

The late Mr. Riordan, who was 53, leaves a widow and ten daughters. A State funeral left St. Stephen's Cathedral on Saturday for Lutwyche Cemetery, following Requiem Mass, which commenced at 10 a.m.

Brother to Mr. W. J. Riordan, former member of the Industrial Court Bench, and before that Branch Secretary of the A.W.U., brother to the late Mr. David ("Darby") Riordan, M.H.R., who held the State seat of Bourke from 1918 to 1929, and was Federal member for Kennedy until his death in 1936, and uncle to Mr. "Bill" Riordan, son of W.J., and present Federal member for Kennedy, the seat formerly held by his uncle, David, the late "Dick" Riordan was born in Mareeba in 1901.

His early school days were spent in Chillagoe and Cairns.

Like the rest of the Riordan family, the late "Dick" was a big man physically, and was very well known in the North, where he first was elected to the State Parliament in 1936 for Bowen at a by-election. When he lost the Bowen seat in 1944 he became Field Officer of the — State Employment Council, later to become private secretary to his nephew, Mr. Bill Riordan, M.H.R., when the latter was Minister for Navy in the Chifley Labor Government.'

The late 'Dick' Riordan re-entered Parliament as a member for Flinders in 1950 and was elected to Cabinet in 1952, following the resignation of Mr. J. Larcombe, M.L.A.

The Premier paid the following tribute when news of Mr. Riordan's death was made known:

"In addition to having lost a very loyal Cabinet and party colleague I have lost a good friend of many years' standing for whom I had a great affection.

"Mr. Riordan was a born Labor man who served his fellow workers industrially and politically with credit to himself and to them. He had an irresistible personality, a wide experience in the industrial field, and a very keen brain.

"I deeply sympathise with his wife and family."