Ted McKeown honoured

By Allan Hogan, Convenor Communications Subcommittee, Bulletin 1/2024, March

Ted McKeown, a former President of the Glebe Society, was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the honours announced on Australia Day. Ted joined the Society in 1972 and during the subsequent fifty years, has been an active member, both as an office-bearer and, when not on the Management Committee, a member who was always prepared to help the Society in other ways. He has served as Treasurer and Bulletin editor and was awarded Honorary Life Membership in 2004.

As a member of the Management Committee in the 1980s, Ted prepared various submissions for the Society on proposed Council amalgamations and the abolition of wards by Leichhardt Municipal Council. A major contribution to the Society was his work on its Constitution. The original constitution had been amended several times, but new legal requirements demanded further revision, particularly once the Society decided it should become incorporated. Ted played a major role in drawing up the new constitution and ensuring it was legally watertight.

Ted has been a proactive contributor to the Society’s goals. His personal interest in recognising and honouring Australia’s military contribution to past war efforts, combined with the Society’s interest in the preservation of significant heritage items, saw Ted play a significant role in the relocation of a World War 1 soldiers’ memorial to its original home at the revitalised Tramsheds in Glebe. The statue was the first in Australia to depict a digger and the first to be installed in a workplace. It was commissioned by Sydney Tram workers in 1916 to honour their colleagues killed on the Western Front. Following the closure of the Tramsheds in 1958, the statue had been relocated to the Leichhardt Bus Depot. It was returned to the Tramsheds in 2018, beautifully restored.

In 1989, Ted became involved with the Glebe Point Road Main Street Study as the Glebe Society representative on the project committee; initially with Leichhardt Council and the Glebe Chamber of Commerce, then with representatives of the Glebe Tenancy Association and other Council departments. The project committee made recommendations about retaining or restoring heritage features on Glebe Point Road, revitalising the streetscape and improving the social amenity of the precinct. A report from the Glebe Point Road Main Street Study was produced in 1992.

Ted’s award was for ‘service to the community of inner western Sydney’, but his role in community service has gone far beyond the boundaries of the inner west. He is an active member of the Sydney Cove Branch of Rotary and, in that capacity, travelled to the Solomon Islands as team leader of the Nurses Aid Project at Sambora, Vella Lavella. For that work, he was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship. The citation reads:

The need to communicate and engage with the Solomon Islands Ministry of Health made this a frustrating and time consuming project requiring the highest levels of patience and diplomacy … Ted was always willing to take advice from colleagues with greater construction experience and he deftly built great rapport with village chiefs and other key influencers as well as local SI men and women.

Ted’s other regular volunteer roles in the Rotary Club include providing meals for homeless people at Vinnies Night Patrol and the Early Bird Café, marshalling at the annual Australia Day Wheelchair Race, and assisting with the Club’s annual regatta to raise funds for Sydney Children’s Hospital. Ted is the Secretary of the Medical Repurposing Network, which provides decommissioned and new diagnostic medical equipment to facilities and hospitals in regional and remote communities in Australia and near Pacific nations. Ted has provided legal expertise and active ongoing support for this Network.

Ted served as a Board Member and later as Chair of the Wentworth Park Sporting Complex Trust from 2005 to 2016. Susan Cleary, his fellow board member, wrote:

For many years the Trust was faced with many challenges, with Board members from the dog racing industry having at times different priorities to those of the community. Ted’s [legal background] was extremely valuable to the Board for day-to-day matters. In his role as Board member Ted was purposeful, clear, and constructive. He was well liked by all Board members.

His citation for Honorary Life Membership of the Society stated, 

Ted’s clear thinking and legal acumen have been of ongoing benefit to the Society, and his advice has been sought by many of our presidents and office bearers. We have, in effect, had the benefit of a virtual consultant on legal matters (other than planning) available to us for fifty or so years. And the ‘consultant’ has been referred to frequently. He has, therefore, been instrumental in ensuring that the Society has maintained an appropriate balance between activism and legality. As a consequence, the Society’s views, particularly in recent years, have been sought on many issues because of the balanced opinions and constructive criticisms that it can offer. This has been due in no small part to Ted’s knowledge and wisdom.

Congratulations Ted. This is truly a well-deserved award.