King O'Malley
Encyclopedia
King O'Malley was an Australia
n politician. He was a member in the South Australian House of Assembly
from 1896 to 1899, and the Australian House of Representatives
from 1901 to 1917. O'Malley was also Minister for Home Affairs
in the second
and third Fisher Labor ministry
.
O'Malley was a visible figure in Australian public life during the early years of Federation. He is particularly remembered for his role in the establishment of the Commonwealth Bank and in the selection of Canberra
as the national capital.
say he was born on 2 July, while the Australian Parliamentary Handbook
says 4 July. O'Malley claimed all his life (in public at least) to have been born at the Stanford Farm in the Eastern Townships
of Quebec
, Canada
, which would have made him a British subject
, but it is more likely that he was born at his parents' farm in Valley Falls, Kansas
, United States
. Late in his life, in a letter to the widow of the former Labor
MP James Catts
, O'Malley wrote "I am an American". According to O'Malley, his parents were William and Mary (King) O'Malley. It is unlikely that "King O'Malley" was his real name and information concerning his background is suspect as neither his name nor those of his parents occur in the United States Census
at any time prior to his emigration. If he was born in the United States, he was ineligible to sit in Australian parliaments, since he was never naturalised as a British subject (see also Chris Watson
).
O'Malley was educated at a primary school in New York City
, then worked in his uncle's bank and as an insurance and real estate salesman, travelling widely around the United States. While in Texas O'Malley founded a church taking the title of "First Bishop
of the Waterlily Rock Bound Church, the Red Skin Temple of the Cayuse Nation" in order to take advantage of a government land grant then being offered to churches. In 1881 O'Malley married Rosy Wilmot who died from tuberculosis
shortly before she was due to give birth in 1886. O'Malley found he had contracted the disease from her and in 1888, having been given six months to live, he sailed for Queensland
, Australia
.
Landing at Port Alma
, O'Malley apparently took up residence in a cave at Emu Park
where he befriended an aboriginal, Coowonga, who cared for him until he recovered. Now healthy, O'Malley decided to walk the 2,100 km from Emu Park to Adelaide
in South Australia
, arriving in 1893. In South Australia he again worked as an itinerant insurance salesman, also preaching evangelical Christianity
and temperance
. In 1895 he settled in Gawler, South Australia, and in 1896 he was elected as a member for Encounter Bay in the South Australian House of Assembly
as a radical democrat, opposed to the wealthy landowners who then dominated colonial politics. Calling himself a follower of Christian Socialism
, his most popular platform among conservatives was to rid hotels of barmaids "hired for their physical attributes rather than their prowess in drawing ale". Although unsuccessful himself, in 1909 laws were passed to require registration of barmaids who were now required to be a member of the owner's family.
O'Malley's narrow win in the 1896 state election
has been credited to his popularity among religious leaders and conservatives for his extreme puritan
views but it seems his popularity with women voters was a bigger factor. Women were much taken by his appearance and O'Malley's "oratorial buffoonery" was the popular topic of discussion throughout South Australia. He called hotels "drunkeries", alcohol was "stagger juice", opponents were "diabolical rapscallions" and he referred to himself as the "bald headed Eagle from the Rocky Mountains".
O'Malley was defeated at the 1899 state election
, and the following year he moved to Tasmania
, the smallest of the Australian colonies. Here a tall, fashionably dressed American preaching the Gospel and radical democracy drew immediate attention, and he was elected at the 1901 federal election as the member for Darwin
, one of Tasmania's five members in the first Australian Parliament. Although there was no Labour Party
in Tasmania at this time, he joined the Labour Caucus
when the Parliament assembled in Melbourne
.
Historian Gavin Souter
describes O'Malley at this time:
O'Malley was thus one of the more prominent and colourful members of the Parliament, but his radical ideas were not widely accepted, and many regarded him as a charlatan. He became a prominent advocate of a national bank
as a means of providing cheap credit for farmers and small businessmen.
He was not a member of Chris Watson
's first Labour ministry in 1904, or of Andrew Fisher
's first ministry in 1908. But in April 1910 the Caucus elected him to the ministry of Fisher's second government. In the same year he married again, to Amy Garrod.
O'Malley became Minister for Home Affairs
, and played a prominent role in selecting the site of the future capital of Australia, Canberra
. He declared American architect Walter Burley Griffin
winner of the town planning competition. On 20 February 1913, O'Malley drove in the first peg which marked the start of the development of the city. He was also present at the ceremony for the naming of Canberra on 12 March 1913.
As a teetotaller he was responsible for the highly unpopular ban on alcohol in the Australian Capital Territory
. He could also claim credit for beginning the building of the Trans-Australian Railway
from Port Augusta
to Perth
.
He also agitated for the establishment of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, a state-owned savings and investment bank, although he was not the bank's sole inspirer, contrary to his later claims. He later wrote that he had led a "torpedo squad" in Caucus to force a reluctant Cabinet to establish the bank, but historians do not accept this. Prime Minister Fisher was the bank's principal architect. Partly to allay fears of "funny money" aroused by O'Malley's populist rhetoric, Fisher ensured that the bank would be run on firmly "sound money" principles, and the bank as established did not provide easy credit for farmers as the radicals desired.
O'Malley's other legacy was the spelling of "Labor" in the Australian Labor Party
's title in the American style. He was a spelling reform
enthusiast and persuaded the party that "Labor" was a more "modern" spelling than "Labour". Although the American spelling has not become established in Australia, the Labor Party has preserved the spelling.
Labor was defeated at the 1913 federal election
, and when it returned to office at the 1914 federal election
, O'Malley was not re-elected to the Cabinet. In October 1915, however, Fisher retired and O'Malley returned to office in the first ministry of Billy Hughes
, again as Minister for Home Affairs. But a year later the government split over the determination of Hughes to introduce conscription
for Australia's contribution to World War I
. O'Malley resigned from Hughes's Cabinet in protest and became an outspoken anti-conscriptionist.
Hughes called the 1917 federal election
, and O'Malley was very narrowly defeated in his northern Tasmanian seat by a Nationalist candidate. He stood for the seat again in 1919, and for another seat in 1922, but he never returned to elective office. Although he was only 59 at the time of his defeat, he retired to Melbourne and devoted his time to building up his own legend, particularly in relation to the Commonwealth Bank, and to polemical journalism on a variety of pet causes. He lived to be 95, outliving his nemesis Hughes. At the time of his death he was the last surviving member of the first Australian Parliament.
O'Malley's importance in developing the national capital is remembered in Canberra with the suburb of O'Malley
being named after him. A pub in Canberra, King O'Malley's Irish Pub in Civic
, is also named after him - this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to his above-mentioned role in an unpopular alcohol ban in the Australian Capital Territory. O'Malley is the subject of a 1970 musical play
The Legend of King O'Malley by Michael Boddy and Bob Ellis
.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n politician. He was a member in the South Australian House of Assembly
South Australian House of Assembly
The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.- Overview :...
from 1896 to 1899, and the Australian House of Representatives
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
from 1901 to 1917. O'Malley was also Minister for Home Affairs
Minister for Home Affairs (Australia)
The Australian Minister for Home Affairs has been Brendan O'Connor since 6 June 2009. The Home Affairs portfolio brings together agencies such as the Australian Customs Service , the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, which were previously the...
in the second
Second Fisher Ministry
The Second Fisher Ministry was the ninth Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 29 April 1910 to 24 June 1913.Australian Labor Party*Hon Andrew Fisher, MP: Prime Minister and Treasurer*Hon Billy Hughes, MP: Attorney-General...
and third Fisher Labor ministry
Third Fisher Ministry
The Third Fisher Ministry was the eleventh Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 17 September 1914 to 27 October 1915.Australian Labor Party*Hon Andrew Fisher, MP: Prime Minister and Treasurer*Hon Billy Hughes, MP: Attorney-General...
.
O'Malley was a visible figure in Australian public life during the early years of Federation. He is particularly remembered for his role in the establishment of the Commonwealth Bank and in the selection of Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
as the national capital.
Biography
Neither the date nor the place of O'Malley's birth is known with certainty. His biographers Larry Noye and Arthur HoyleArthur Hoyle
Arthur Robert Hoyle is an Australian historian and biographer. Born in Sydney, Australia, in 1922 to Arthur Hoyle and Gertrude Underwood , he served in the Royal Air Force as a navigator during World War II and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He returned to Australia and married Moira...
say he was born on 2 July, while the Australian Parliamentary Handbook
Australian Parliamentary Handbook
The Australian Parliamentary Handbook , is the official record of the Parliament of Australia...
says 4 July. O'Malley claimed all his life (in public at least) to have been born at the Stanford Farm in the Eastern Townships
Eastern Townships
The Eastern Townships is a tourist region and a former administrative region in south-eastern Quebec, lying between the former seigneuries south of the Saint Lawrence River and the United States border. Its northern boundary roughly followed Logan's Line, the geologic boundary between the flat,...
of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, which would have made him a British subject
British subject
In British nationality law, the term British subject has at different times had different meanings. The current definition of the term British subject is contained in the British Nationality Act 1981.- Prior to 1949 :...
, but it is more likely that he was born at his parents' farm in Valley Falls, Kansas
Valley Falls, Kansas
Valley Falls is a city in Jefferson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,192. Valley Falls is part of the Topeka, Kansas Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Late in his life, in a letter to the widow of the former Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
MP James Catts
James Catts
James Howard Catts was an Australian politician, unionist and businessman.-Early life:Catts was born at Wagga Wagga, New South Wales to joiner and grocer James Catts and Amy, née Hedger...
, O'Malley wrote "I am an American". According to O'Malley, his parents were William and Mary (King) O'Malley. It is unlikely that "King O'Malley" was his real name and information concerning his background is suspect as neither his name nor those of his parents occur in the United States Census
United States Census
The United States Census is a decennial census mandated by the United States Constitution. The population is enumerated every 10 years and the results are used to allocate Congressional seats , electoral votes, and government program funding. The United States Census Bureau The United States Census...
at any time prior to his emigration. If he was born in the United States, he was ineligible to sit in Australian parliaments, since he was never naturalised as a British subject (see also Chris Watson
Chris Watson
John Christian Watson , commonly known as Chris Watson, Australian politician, was the third Prime Minister of Australia...
).
O'Malley was educated at a primary school in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, then worked in his uncle's bank and as an insurance and real estate salesman, travelling widely around the United States. While in Texas O'Malley founded a church taking the title of "First Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
of the Waterlily Rock Bound Church, the Red Skin Temple of the Cayuse Nation" in order to take advantage of a government land grant then being offered to churches. In 1881 O'Malley married Rosy Wilmot who died from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
shortly before she was due to give birth in 1886. O'Malley found he had contracted the disease from her and in 1888, having been given six months to live, he sailed for Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Port Alma, Queensland
Port Alma is a port in Queensland, Australia, approximately from Rockhampton, at the south end of the Fitzroy River delta. The port primarily handles cargoes consisting of class 1 explosives, ammonium nitrate, bulk tallow and equipment used in support of military exercises held at Shoalwater Bay....
, O'Malley apparently took up residence in a cave at Emu Park
Emu Park, Queensland
Emu Park is a small town located slightly south of Yeppoon in Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 census, Emu Park had a population of 2,967.Home of the famous Singing Ship Monument, the Emu Park land area was first discovered by Captain James Cook in 1770. It overlooks the islands of Keppel Bay,...
where he befriended an aboriginal, Coowonga, who cared for him until he recovered. Now healthy, O'Malley decided to walk the 2,100 km from Emu Park to Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
, arriving in 1893. In South Australia he again worked as an itinerant insurance salesman, also preaching evangelical Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and temperance
Temperance movement
A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence , or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.-Temperance movement by...
. In 1895 he settled in Gawler, South Australia, and in 1896 he was elected as a member for Encounter Bay in the South Australian House of Assembly
South Australian House of Assembly
The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.- Overview :...
as a radical democrat, opposed to the wealthy landowners who then dominated colonial politics. Calling himself a follower of Christian Socialism
Christian socialism
Christian socialism generally refers to those on the Christian left whose politics are both Christian and socialist and who see these two philosophies as being interrelated. This category can include Liberation theology and the doctrine of the social gospel...
, his most popular platform among conservatives was to rid hotels of barmaids "hired for their physical attributes rather than their prowess in drawing ale". Although unsuccessful himself, in 1909 laws were passed to require registration of barmaids who were now required to be a member of the owner's family.
O'Malley's narrow win in the 1896 state election
South Australian state election, 1896
State elections were held in Australia on 25 April 1896. All 54 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election. The incumbent liberal government led by Premier of South Australia Charles Kingston in an informal coalition United Labor Party led by John McPherson defeated the...
has been credited to his popularity among religious leaders and conservatives for his extreme puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
views but it seems his popularity with women voters was a bigger factor. Women were much taken by his appearance and O'Malley's "oratorial buffoonery" was the popular topic of discussion throughout South Australia. He called hotels "drunkeries", alcohol was "stagger juice", opponents were "diabolical rapscallions" and he referred to himself as the "bald headed Eagle from the Rocky Mountains".
O'Malley was defeated at the 1899 state election
South Australian state election, 1899
State elections were held in Australia on 29 April 1899. All 54 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election. The incumbent liberal government led by Premier of South Australia Charles Kingston in an informal coalition United Labor Party led by Lee Batchelor defeated the...
, and the following year he moved to Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
, the smallest of the Australian colonies. Here a tall, fashionably dressed American preaching the Gospel and radical democracy drew immediate attention, and he was elected at the 1901 federal election as the member for Darwin
Division of Darwin
The Division of Darwin was an Australian Electoral Division in Tasmania. The division was created in 1903 and abolished in 1955, when it was replaced by the Division of Braddon. It was named after Charles Darwin, who visited Australia in 1836. It was located in north-western Tasmania, including the...
, one of Tasmania's five members in the first Australian Parliament. Although there was no Labour Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
in Tasmania at this time, he joined the Labour Caucus
Caucus
A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement, especially in the United States and Canada. As the use of the term has been expanded the exact definition has come to vary among political cultures.-Origin of the term:...
when the Parliament assembled in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
.
Historian Gavin Souter
Gavin Souter
Gavin Geoffrey Souter AO is an Australian journalist and historian.He was born in Sydney and educated at Kempsey High School, and Scots College in Warwick, Queensland and then graduated BA from the University of Sydney...
describes O'Malley at this time:
O'Malley's monstrously overgrown persona seemed to be inhabited simultaneously by a spruiker from Barnum's three-ring circus, a hell-and-tarnation revivalist, and a four-flushing YankeeYankeeThe term Yankee has several interrelated and often pejorative meanings, usually referring to people originating in the northeastern United States, or still more narrowly New England, where application of the term is largely restricted to descendants of the English settlers of the region.The...
Congressman. He was a moderately big man, auburn-haired with watchful grey eyes and a red-brown beard, wearing a wide-brimmed felt hat, blue-grey suit with huge lapels and a low-cut vest, loose cravat with a diamond collar stud, and in the centre of his cream silk shirt-front a fiery opalOpalOpal is an amorphous form of silica related to quartz, a mineraloid form, not a mineral. 3% to 21% of the total weight is water, but the content is usually between 6% to 10%. It is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most...
.
O'Malley was thus one of the more prominent and colourful members of the Parliament, but his radical ideas were not widely accepted, and many regarded him as a charlatan. He became a prominent advocate of a national bank
National bank
In banking, the term national bank carries several meanings:* especially in developing countries, a bank owned by the state* an ordinary private bank which operates nationally...
as a means of providing cheap credit for farmers and small businessmen.
He was not a member of Chris Watson
Chris Watson
John Christian Watson , commonly known as Chris Watson, Australian politician, was the third Prime Minister of Australia...
's first Labour ministry in 1904, or of Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher was an Australian politician who served as the fifth Prime Minister on three separate occasions. Fisher's 1910-13 Labor ministry completed a vast legislative programme which made him, along with Protectionist Alfred Deakin, the founder of the statutory structure of the new nation...
's first ministry in 1908. But in April 1910 the Caucus elected him to the ministry of Fisher's second government. In the same year he married again, to Amy Garrod.
Minister for Home Affairs (Australia)
The Australian Minister for Home Affairs has been Brendan O'Connor since 6 June 2009. The Home Affairs portfolio brings together agencies such as the Australian Customs Service , the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, which were previously the...
, and played a prominent role in selecting the site of the future capital of Australia, Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
. He declared American architect Walter Burley Griffin
Walter Burley Griffin
Walter Burley Griffin was an American architect and landscape architect, who is best known for his role in designing Canberra, Australia's capital city...
winner of the town planning competition. On 20 February 1913, O'Malley drove in the first peg which marked the start of the development of the city. He was also present at the ceremony for the naming of Canberra on 12 March 1913.
As a teetotaller he was responsible for the highly unpopular ban on alcohol in the Australian Capital Territory
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory, often abbreviated ACT, is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and is the smallest self-governing internal territory...
. He could also claim credit for beginning the building of the Trans-Australian Railway
Trans-Australian Railway
The Trans-Australian Railway crosses the Nullarbor Plain of Australia from Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia...
from Port Augusta
Port Augusta, South Australia
-Electricity generation:Electricity is generated at the Playford B and Northern power stations from brown coal mined at Leigh Creek, 250 km to the north...
to Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
.
He also agitated for the establishment of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, a state-owned savings and investment bank, although he was not the bank's sole inspirer, contrary to his later claims. He later wrote that he had led a "torpedo squad" in Caucus to force a reluctant Cabinet to establish the bank, but historians do not accept this. Prime Minister Fisher was the bank's principal architect. Partly to allay fears of "funny money" aroused by O'Malley's populist rhetoric, Fisher ensured that the bank would be run on firmly "sound money" principles, and the bank as established did not provide easy credit for farmers as the radicals desired.
O'Malley's other legacy was the spelling of "Labor" in the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
's title in the American style. He was a spelling reform
Spelling reform
Many languages have undergone spelling reform, where a deliberate, often officially sanctioned or mandated, change to spelling takes place. Proposals for such reform are also common....
enthusiast and persuaded the party that "Labor" was a more "modern" spelling than "Labour". Although the American spelling has not become established in Australia, the Labor Party has preserved the spelling.
Labor was defeated at the 1913 federal election
Australian federal election, 1913
Federal elections were held in Australia on 31 May 1913. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister of Australia Andrew Fisher was defeated by the opposition Commonwealth Liberal...
, and when it returned to office at the 1914 federal election
Australian federal election, 1914
Federal elections were held in Australia on 5 September 1914. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 36 seats in the Senate were up for election in a double dissolution...
, O'Malley was not re-elected to the Cabinet. In October 1915, however, Fisher retired and O'Malley returned to office in the first ministry of Billy Hughes
Billy Hughes
William Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, KC, MHR , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923....
, again as Minister for Home Affairs. But a year later the government split over the determination of Hughes to introduce conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
for Australia's contribution to World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. O'Malley resigned from Hughes's Cabinet in protest and became an outspoken anti-conscriptionist.
Hughes called the 1917 federal election
Australian federal election, 1917
Federal elections were held in Australia on 5 May 1917. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...
, and O'Malley was very narrowly defeated in his northern Tasmanian seat by a Nationalist candidate. He stood for the seat again in 1919, and for another seat in 1922, but he never returned to elective office. Although he was only 59 at the time of his defeat, he retired to Melbourne and devoted his time to building up his own legend, particularly in relation to the Commonwealth Bank, and to polemical journalism on a variety of pet causes. He lived to be 95, outliving his nemesis Hughes. At the time of his death he was the last surviving member of the first Australian Parliament.
O'Malley's importance in developing the national capital is remembered in Canberra with the suburb of O'Malley
O'Malley, Australian Capital Territory
O'Malley is a suburb in the Canberra district of Woden Valley. On Census night 2006, O'Malley had a population of 684 people. There are numerous embassies in O'Malley....
being named after him. A pub in Canberra, King O'Malley's Irish Pub in Civic
City Centre, Australian Capital Territory
The central business district of Canberra, Australia's capital city, is officially named City . However it is also referred to as Civic, Civic Centre, City Centre, Canberra City and Canberra ....
, is also named after him - this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to his above-mentioned role in an unpopular alcohol ban in the Australian Capital Territory. O'Malley is the subject of a 1970 musical play
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
The Legend of King O'Malley by Michael Boddy and Bob Ellis
Bob Ellis
Bob Ellis is an Australian writer, journalist, film-maker and political commentator. He was a student at the University of Sydney at the same time as other notable Australians including Clive James, Germaine Greer, Les Murray, John Bell, Ken Horler, and Mungo McCallum...
.
Further reading
- Arthur HoyleArthur HoyleArthur Robert Hoyle is an Australian historian and biographer. Born in Sydney, Australia, in 1922 to Arthur Hoyle and Gertrude Underwood , he served in the Royal Air Force as a navigator during World War II and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He returned to Australia and married Moira...
, King O'Malley - The American Bounder, Macmillan, Melbourne, 1981 - Larry Noye, O'Malley MHR, Neptune Press 1985 (a short and very admiring biography)
- Max Colwell & Alan Naylor, Adelaide an Illustrated History. Landsdowne Press 1974 (O'Malley biography Pgs 86 - 91)
External links
- Arthur Hoyle, 'O'Malley, King (1858 - 1953)', Australian Dictionary of BiographyAustralian Dictionary of BiographyThe Australian Dictionary of Biography is a national, co-operative enterprise, founded and maintained by the Australian National University to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's history....
, Volume 11, Melbourne University Press, 1988, pp 84–86. - King & Amy O'Malley Trust