Dominic Bernard Syme (28 October 1921 – 15 April 2013) was an Australian local politician, activist and prominent communist in New South Wales. He was born in Redfern to James Syme and Annie Sheriff. He grew up in Kogarah and attended the Marist Brothers school, before leaving at age 14 to work as an apprentice bricklayer in order to help his family during the Depression years. In 1940 he bought a small poultry farm at

Moorebank Moorebank is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Moorebank is located 27 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Liverpool. Moorebank features a mix ...

, 27 kilometers southwest of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, and became secretary of the Australian Poultry Farmers' Association. He served in Papua New Guinea during World War II, but he contracted malaria and was discharged on medical grounds in 1943. He was briefly a member of the Labor Party but in 1938 joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA). In 1952, he married fellow communist Kathleen Elsie Stringer, and adopted her three children by a previous marriage, Robyn, Wendy and Lynette "Lyn" Syme. Don and Kathleen were both prominent communists in the 1950s. In the 1960s and 1970s, Syme became an active opponent of the Vietnam War as an unjust invasion. He was also a feminist and conservationist who supported aboriginal land rights, and in common with the CPA he opposed the Soviet Union's

invasion of Czechoslovakia The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...

in 1968. In the 1970s he focused on conservation, and campaigned against sand mining on the

Georges River The Georges River, also known as Tucoerah River, is an intermediate tide-dominated drowned valley estuary, located to the south and west of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The river travels for approximately in a north and then easterly ...

. He was brutally assaulted in his home in 1976, which he attributed to his local activism. In 1980 he was elected to

Liverpool City Council Liverpool City Council is the governing body for the city of Liverpool in Merseyside, England. It consists of 90 councillors, three for each of the city's 30 wards. The council is currently controlled by the Labour Party and is led by Mayor ...

, where he served for fifteen years. On council he played a key role in establishing the Chipping Norton Lake recreation area, turning the lifeless former sand mine on the Georges River into a lush wildlife reserve and recreational area. His wife, Kathleen, died at age 77 in 2003. Don Syme died at the age of 91 in April 2013. He was survived by Kathleen's daughters Wendy, Robyn and Lyn, as well as their daughters Nell and Nolene, and by nine grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Syme, Don 1921 births 2013 deaths Australian conservationists Communist Party of Australia members New South Wales local councillors