Leichhardt Mayor Darcy Byrne has paid tribute to Neville Wran following the death of the former NSW premier at the age of 87on the 20th of April, 2014.
“For local people, especially those whose families had been there for generations, Neville Wran personified all that was good and proud about the history and culture of our suburb.
“For a community that only a decade before had been considered slum dwellers, the example set by one of their own rising to the highest office in the state was a powerful one.”
Mr Wran was the New South Wales Premier from 1976 to 1986 and his career includud the introduction of random breath testing and rate-pegging.
Mayor Byrne said Wran’s story is in many ways the story of Australian progress.
“He was a poor kid who through education and ingenuity became successively a Queen’s Counsel, a politician and a Premier. He didn’t just espouse egalitarianism, he lived and breathed it.
“He believed in expanding civil rights and protecting rainforests while advancing the economic conditions and the dignity of people struggling to get by.
“In an era in which politics can seem small minded and uninspiring, the memory of Neville Wran should remind us that something more grand is possible.
“His famous catchcry ‘Balmain boys don’t cry’ can still be heard on any Friday night in the pubs of our neighbourhood.
“Balmain has lost a local hero.”
