Tony Mulvihil
Hummer No. 24 featured an interesting article on Ron Dunbier. The editor was equally pleased to receive the following comment from Tony Mulvihill
When the Concord A.L.P. Selection Ballot was held in the 1952-53 era, I was President of Concord A.L.P. Branch but had never met either Ron Dunbier or his opponent Tom Murphy. Imagine my surprise one morning at the Chullora Loco Workshops when an athletic figure in a grey suit climbed up a 70ft ladder to the cabin of a 35 ton crane which I was operating to seek my vote. However, his actions were observed by’ a young Boilermaker’s Helper, Pat Flaherty, who later became the Member for Granville and Government Whip.
Pat then related to me an incident at Canterbury Velodrome in 1939 when Pat, as a promising junior cyclist, competed in an open event where one of the senior competitors – the illustrious Ron Dunbier – rode him down off the track.
At Pat concluded ‘he could have won the event without resorting to such methods.’ In the light of this sports thuggery, my vote went to Tom Murphy free of factional inhibitions.