Fred Paterson.

Fred Paterson, born in 1897, was the only member of the Communist Party to be elected to the Australian Parliament. The sixth out of eleven children, his father came to Queensland in 1897, working as a jackeroo and pig farmer. Fred Paterson excelled at school, and won a scholarship to Brisbane Grammar in 1913. He went on to study at the University of Queensland, majoring in philosophy and Classics, a subject that his father also loved. Fred Paterson was a strong church-goer at this stage of his life, also teaching Sunday school.

When World War I erupted, Paterson was full of ideals, and at the age of 20, enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (A.I.F.). He experienced his first taste of rebellion at the Australian soldiers' camp, where the soldiers were on strike due to lack of food supplies. When he returned to Australia, the 22 year old Paterson completed his University studies, and was selected as a Rhodes Scholar. Majoring in religious studies, he became disillusioned when he found that the Gospels were not necessarily true. After completing his studies, Paterson left Oxford to study Marx when he arrived back in Australia. The Russian revolution had swept the Australian Labor Party in 1920 after WWI, and he saw, along with others, that the only way to halt poverty and injustice in society was to install a socialist government.

Apart from studying Marx, Paterson also taught Classics and grammar at the prestigious Church of England Grammar School. Between 1920 and 1925, Fred Paterson married Lucy Blackman and moved to Gladstone where he became a pig farmer. Winning notoriety for preaching strike and social change, he inspired a rail strike, and enrolled to study Law to further his ability to bring about change. In 1930, Fred Paterson protested against Government policy to jail strikers, and was charged with sedition. The trial, however, only cemented his reputation, and he was found innocent of the charges.

Having been admitted to The Bar in 1931, he began his professional law career by defending two itinerant cane cutters in 1932. In that same year, Paterson married for the second time after his divorce from Lucy Blackman, and moved to Townsville with his new wife, Cathleen Claire. As a lawyer, he worked down the East Coast and was renowned for his relentless cross-examination and voluntary work. He supported the Labor Party in helping the unemployed.

Increasingly involved in the Communist Party however, Paterson worked in North Queensland to defend his three ideals: defending peace, desire for human dignity, and defeating fascism. As Editor of The Guardian in 1935, he increased readership of the newspaper greatly, and was elected to the Townsville Council in 1939, and in 1945, was elected as the Communist Member for Bowen. He was re-elected in 1947 after supporting higher wages for train workers. When the Bowen seat was obliterated by gerrymander, Paterson stood for the Whitsunday but lost. He headed the Queensland Senate ticket in 1952 but again failed to be elected. After twenty campaigns, he retired from politics, but continued practising as a radical lawyer. He died in 1977 in Sydney, leaving behind two sons.

From the description of 6583 Legend of Fred Paterson Video, 1995. (Libraries Australia). WorldCat record id: 755789428