Francis Joseph "Frank" Condon (3 December 1884 – 15 July 1961) was a trade unionist and

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

politician in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

History

Frank was born, perhaps in Burra, a son of William Alfred Condon (23 May 1860 – 18 March 1932), who married Catherine Tobin (24 May 1860 – ) at

Kooringa Burra is a pastoral centre and historic tourist town in the mid-north of South Australia. It lies east of the Clare Valley in the Bald Hills range, part of the northern Mount Lofty Ranges, and on Burra Creek. The town began as a single company ...

, near Burra, on 15 October 1881. Frank had five brothers and one sister; all grew up in Hallam Street, Port Pirie. He was working as a "needleman", sewing bags of flour in

Port Pirie Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. The city has an expansive history which dates back to 1845. Port Pirie was the first proclaimed regional city in South ...

for John Dunn around 1906 when he was persuaded to move to Adelaide and organise a union for workers in the flour mills. He was in 1910 the South Australian representative at a Federal conference which established the Federated Millers and Mill Employes Union, and was that body's South Australian Secretary from 1910 to at least 1928. He was elected Federal president of the Federated Millers and Mill Employes Association around 1930, and still held that position in 1951. In 1911 he was elected president of the Port Adelaide Trades and Labour Council. During the First World War he served on the Prices Regulation Commission, work for which he received much praise.

Politics

He was elected auditor for the Port Adelaide Council in 1914, then councillor for East Ward in 1920. Condon was elected to the seat of

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

in the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...

in 1924 after defeating incumbent

John Stanley Verran John Stanley Verran (24 December 1883 – 30 August 1952) was an Australian politician. Verran was born in Moonta, the son of John Verran, later Premier of South Australia. He went to work in a mine at the age of 11, and later worked as ...

for Labor preselection. He was defeated by independent

Protestant Labor Party The Protestant Labour Party, alternatively spelt Protestant Labor, was a minor Australian political party that operated mainly in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia in the 1920s and 1930s. It was formed by Walter Skelton in July ...

candidate Thomas Thompson at the 1927 election. Condon successfully challenged the result before parliament, alleging that he had been libelled, resulting in Thompson's win being voided, but Condon lost the resulting by-election by a larger margin. He succeeded in a bid for the Legislative Council in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

following the death of Andrew Kirkpatrick, and held the seat until his own death in 1961. He served on the public Works Standing Committee, which oversaw the construction Morgan-Whyalla pipeline,

Mount Bold Reservoir Mount Bold Reservoir is the largest reservoir in South Australia with a maximum capacity of over forty-six thousand megalitres. Costing A$1.1 million, the reservoir took six years to construct on the Onkaparinga River system between 1932 and 1938 ...

Anzac Highway Anzac Highway is an main arterial road heading southwest from the city of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, to the beachside suburb of Glenelg. Originally named the Bay Road (which remains an informal synonym), it mostly follows the t ...

Birkenhead Bridge The Birkenhead Bridge is a bascule bridge in Adelaide, Australia that crosses the Port River. In February 1938, the Government of South Australia awarded a contract to Adelaide Construction to build a bridge across the Port River from Birkenhead ...

, Port Adelaide and Glenelg sewage treatment works, the operating theatre complex at the

Royal Adelaide Hospital The Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH), colloquially known by its initials or pronounced as "the Rah", is South Australia's largest hospital, owned by the state government as part of Australia's public health care system. The RAH provides tertiary hea ...

, the Uley-Wanilla Basin scheme to supply water to

Port Lincoln Port Lincoln is a town on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia. It is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, which opens eastward into Spencer Gulf. It is the largest city in the West Coast region, and is located a ...

, and

Adelaide Boys' High School Adelaide High School is a coeducational state high school situated on the corner of West Terrace and Glover Avenue in the Adelaide Parklands. Following the Advanced School for Girls, it was the second government high school in South Australia ...

West Terrace West Terrace is a populated place in the parish of Saint James, Barbados. The National Cultural Foundation of Barbados is located in West Terrace. See also * List of cities, towns and villages in Barbados This is a list of cities, towns and ...

. In 1926 he was chairman of the Manufacturing and Secondary Industries Royal Commission. He was Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council.

Interests

Frank was a keen racegoer and supporter of thoroughbred racing.

Recognition

Condon was personally invested with the CMG by

the Queen In the English-speaking world, The Queen most commonly refers to: * Elizabeth II (1926–2022), Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 1952 until her death The Queen may also refer to: * Camilla, Queen Consort (born 1947), ...

in 1954.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Condon, Francis Joseph Members of the South Australian House of Assembly Members of the South Australian Legislative Council Australian trade unionists 1884 births 1961 deaths People from Burra, South Australia 20th-century Australian politicians South Australian politicians People from Port Pirie Australian Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George