Gough Whitlam

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SummaryThis collection contains photographs and other materials that relate to Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and his time living and working in Cabramatta.BiographyPrime Minister Gough Whitlam was born Edward Gough Whitlam on 11 July 1916 to Fred and Martha Whitlam (nee Maddocks). In 1942 he married Margaret Elaine Dovey, daughter of the future New South Wales Supreme Court judge, Bill Dovey.

Known by his middle name, Gough Whitlam joined the Labor Party in 1945 and became the Member for Werriwa in 1952, a seat he held for 25 years. He became Australia's 21st Prime Minister on 5 December 1972, his term ending abruptly when his government was dismissed by the Governor-General John Kerr on 11 November 1975.

Gough and Margaret lived in Cabramatta at 32 Albert Street from 1957-1972. The local library was renamed in his honour in 1982. That same year he wrote in the introduction to Vance George's 'Fairfield A History of the District':

"... For a quarter of a century I had the good fortune to share in the development and transformation of one of the most dynamic areas in Australia.

In November 1952 I was elected to the Australian Parliament to represent the inhabitants of four out of the five wards in the newly created Municipality of Fairfield. The area did not have such basic public facilities as secondary schools, hospitals, swimming pools and public libraries. Federal Governments had no dealing with Local Government; State Departments were in the hands of men who lived many hours and tens of kilometres distant.

At one time my electorate had 250,000 residents. It was by far the most populous in Australia. Moreover, only 40 per cent of the residents were entitled to vote. This statistic illustrated two of Fairfield's notable characteristics, it had the largest number of children and the largest number of migrants of any district in Australia.

For most of the period that I had the privilege of being the Federal member, my family and I lived in the Municipality. Our engagement books show an immense number of civic, sporting and ethnic functions, most of them marking new activities in various groups of the population and areas of the district.

My experience drove me to develop urban and regional programmes in which the Federal Government, State Government and Local Government could co-operate. My government was the first Federal Government to make financial assistance available directly to Local Government bodies. Apart from general purpose grants which my government made to Fairfield Council between 1972 and 1975, it granted $3 million for specific purposes, such as drainage, bridges, parks and the Library.

It was at this time that action was taken to ensure that the interests of rapidly growing areas were given adequate weight in Parliament. My government legislated for the boundaries of Federal electorates to be periodically redrawn so that the number of electors in different electorates was never again allowed to get out of balance. The Wran government similarly legislated to guarantee an equal vote for citizens in electing the State Parliament."

Details

Date of birth11 July 1916Date of death21 October 2014

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