Table of contents
Tom Pyne Cairns
Early Life
Tom Pyne was born in the sugar town of Babinda in 1935. He was the youngest of five children born to John Samuel and Katherine Hannah Pyne. His siblings included his brothers Jack and Frank and his sisters Ethel Hunt and Grace Macauley.
Tom attended the tiny McDonnell’s Creek School in Bellenden Ker and then Hambledon State School in Edmonton.
Tom Pyne was a long serving Mayor of Cairns and surrounds. He was Mayor of the Mulgrave Shire from 1979 to 1995 and the Mayor of Cairns from 1995 to 2000. He retired from local government politics undefeated.
Family Life
Marion Mackinnon married Tom Pyne in 1955 when she was eighteen and he was twenty.
Indeed this marriage of Tom and Marion Pyne joined two pioneering families of Far North Queensland, the Wienerts and the Pynes.
Subsequently, they had two children, Joann Grace (born in 1960) and Robert John (born in 1967).
Work Life
His first job was as a wood machinist with A.H. Kent, a furniture manufacturer in Cairns. Next, he worked for Queensland Railways, the Department of Works and then as a salesman for Advanx Tyre and Motor Services. He later opened his own business, Tin-Sang and Co, in Edmonton.
Tom Pyne – Public Life
Politics
Tom Pyne joined the Australian Labor Party at the age of 18. Subsequently, he rose through the ranks and held the positions of President and Secretary of the Edmonton branch on several occasions. As a result, he was presented with a Life Membership of the ALP on the 2nd of August, 1985.
Mulgrave Shire Council
At the age of 26 Tom Pyne was elected to the Mulgrave Shire Council as the Councillor for Division 1. Tom served on the Council from 1961 until it was abolished by an amalgamation process in 1995.
In 1976, he was elected Deputy Shire Chairman. In 1979, he was elected unopposed to the Chairmanship of Mulgrave Shire Council following the retirement of the former Chairman Ken Alley. Indeed he was re-elected to this position in 1982, 1983, 1988 and 1991.
Tom Pyne and the Amalgamation Election
The Cairns City Council amalgamated with the Mulgrave Shire Council in 1995. Consequently, the amalgamation election for the new body saw Tom (as Mulgrave Mayor) contest the poll against sitting Cairns City Council, Mayor Kevin Byrne. Tom subsequently defeated Kevin Byrne.
As a result of the win, Tom became Mayor of the newly amalgamated Cairns City Council in 1995. He served a final 5 year term during 1995 – 2000. Hence, he retired from this position, having never been defeated at an election.
Local Government Association of Qld
Tom was elected to the Local Government Executive in 1982 and was reappointed in 1985, 1988 and 1991. However, in the lead up to the 1995 amalgamation of Queensland Councils, he became the Chairman of a group of 20 local authorities leading the Campaign Against Forced Amalgamation.
Tom Pyne – Other Positions
While serving as Chairman of the Mulgrave Shire Council, Tom also filled a number of other official positions. Hence, these included the role of Senior Vice-Chairman of the Local Government Association of Queensland, Chairman of the Board of Directors of local radio station, 4am.
In addition he was appointed Chairman of the Queensland Electricity Board in 1991 and Committee Member of the Far North Queensland Youth Assistance Inc for twelve years. He was also Deputy President on the Cairns/Mulgrave Water Supply Board, to which he was first appointed to in 1968 and the Wet Tropics Management Authority.
Following a number of years in retirement, Tom passed away suddenly in 2011 and was survived by his wife Marion, daughter Joann, son Robert and Granddaughter Kate.
Thomas Pyne obituary
Cairns/Mulgrave mayor Thomas ‘Tom’ Alfred Pyne, AM, was born on January 31, 1935, in Babinda and died on October 30, 2011, in Cairns.
To many, Tom Pyne was simply “Mr Cairns”.
One of the two longest-serving councillors in Queensland history, the former Mulgrave Shire mayor took over the helm as the civic leader of Cairns after the two councils merged in 1995.
Such was his standing in the community, even back then, he trounced incumbent Cairns mayor Kevin Byrne.
During the next five years he oversaw the difficult transition to a mega-council, centralised council departments at new headquarters in Spence St and initiated the important but deeply unpopular user-pays water program.
But one of his proudest achievements was the iconic Esplanade Lagoon on the scenic Cairns foreshore.
Through extensive consultation, residents decided what they wanted. The end result was a major new tourism attraction as well as a welcome playground for locals.
Well before he took on the top job in Cairns, Mr Pyne had made his mark in Mulgrave. He delivered vital infrastructure such as the Copperlode Dam, now the main water source for the greater Cairns area, and the road to the Yarrabah Aboriginal community, a beautiful but difficult engineering project.
Mr Pyne and successive Cairns mayors also pushed for an international airport for the city, perhaps the single most important piece of infrastructure in the region’s long history.
It transformed Cairns from a quiet town into a tourism powerhouse and is now the fourth busiest airport in the country.
Mr Pyne not only matched National Party supremo Sir Robert Sparkes’ record of 40 years’ service at local government level, he had the rare privilege of choosing the timing of his departure from politics, retiring as Cairns mayor in 2000. It was a fitting way to end such a distinguished career.
The scion of a family with deep roots in the far north, Mr Pyne was the youngest of John Samuel and Katherine Hannah Pyne’s five children.
Educated at McDonnell’s Creek, Bellenden Ker and Hambledon state schools, for years he lived in the little hamlet of Deeral before moving to Edmonton in what is now the southern outskirts of Cairns suburbia.
At the age of 20 he married Marion McKinnon and the couple were to have two children, Joann Grace and Robert John Pyne (now also a Cairns councillor).
His working life began as a wood machinist with A.H. Kent, a furniture manufacturer in Cairns.
He later was employed by Queensland Railways and the Department of Works before opening his own business in Edmonton.
A member of the 51st RQR Reserve, he attained the rank of sergeant and his commanding officer, Sir Sydney Williams, OBE, become a lifelong friend.
Politics had been in his blood ever since he joined the ALP at the age of 18.
Mr Pyne was a local branch president and secretary and party life member, as well as campaign director for several federal and state members, including former treasurer Keith De Lacy.
But it was in the less politically partisan local government sphere that he was to make his mark.
Elected to Mulgrave Shire Council in 1961 in Division 1, by 1976 he was deputy shire chairman and three years later was elected unopposed as chairman.
He was re-elected, again unopposed, in 1982, 1983, 1988 and 1991.
Although he headed a group of north Queensland councils opposed to amalgamation, he easily won the mayoralty of the new Cairns council.
In later years he was on several boards including the Local Government Association, the Queensland Electricity Board and the Wet Tropics Management Authority.
Mr Pyne is survived by his wife Joanne (known as Marion), daughter Joann and son Rob.
Thomas Pyne Collection
1991
2000
The Big Man with a Passion for Cairns
2005
Cairns Museum Appreciation Award
2011
Tom’s vision the blueprint for our future
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[…] Alfred Pyne AO (Tom Pyne) was an Australian politician. Firstly, he was the Chairman of the Shire of Mulgrave from […]
[…] Council (to the annoyance of some former Mulgrave Shire residents). The former Mulgrave Shire Mayor Tom Pyne was successful at the amalgamation election, becoming the first Mayor of the newly merged […]