Pat Mackie (1914–2009), union leader, led the Mount Isa strike of 1964–65 that polarised the town and almost bankrupted Mount Isa Mining. Mackie's life of activism began when as a young stowaway on a boat from New Zealand, he challenged the captain as to the lawfulness of his uncomfortable accommodation. Working in blue-collar jobs around the globe, he became a member of the Industrial Workers of the World and the United States Seafarers Unions before ending up central Queensland. The dispute of 1964–65, one of Australia's major rank-and-file uprisings, arose over management's failure to provide showers for miners. As it escalated, Queensland Premier Frank Nicklin described Mackie as a 'vicious gangster' and the strike as a 'communist strategy to retard and even prevent major developmental projects in this state'; the government vainly explored all possible avenues to have him deported. The strike and the rest of the unionist's tumultuous life are described in his books Mount Isa: The Story of a Dispute (1989) and Many Ships to Mount Isa (c. 2002).
Although she did not know Mackie well until he sat for her, Nancy Borlase's close personal connections within the trade union movement through her husband, union official Laurie Short, afford a further dimension of interest to this portrait, painted in her characteristically flat and graphic, almost cartoonish, style.
Purchased 2004
© Estate of Nancy Borlase
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Dr Sarah Engledow delves into the life of union leader Pat Mackie who is depicted in a portrait by Nancy Borlase AM.
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