Alex McCallum: An extraordinary Western Australian
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######### The Records of Alex McCallum #########
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######### The Biography of Alex McCallum #########
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The State of Western Australia would have been the poorer without Alex McCallum's contribution in the first four decades of the twentieth century - as a union leader, Cabinet Minister and head of the Agricultural Bank. The McCallum papers, held in the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library, provide fascinating insights into this 'Yeoman of the Labor Guard', a man of 'forceful personality and outstanding ability'. [1]
As a fighter he was courageous, as an administrator sagacious, as a unionist loyal and self sacrificing. [2]

In the industrial sphere his achievements include the organising of many classes of previously unorganised workers, the conception and successful establishment of the Headquarters of the Labor Movement, the leadership and executive control of numerous industrial battles which laid the foundations of industrial unionism deep and lasting, the drafting and advocacy in the Arbitration Court of scores of industrial awards and agreements. Fearless in industrial fights, Mr McCallum was the best-hated man in the Movement by the employing class - but he was also the most feared man.

In the political sphere he established a reputation as a logical and forceful debater... Two statutes are monuments to his capacity as a draftsman and his championship of Labor - the Arbitration Act and the Workers' Compensation Act, described by those best able to judge as the two best pieces of legislation of their kind in the world.
[3]

His biggest administrative work was the initiating of the big metropolitan sewerage scheme and the water supply extension scheme, which included the building of the Canning Dam... The most individualistic part of his public work was that which arose from his keen sense of civic beauty. He introduced the town planning legislation, and his pet project... was the Swan River Reclamation Scheme. [4]

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