Kevin Byrne
Encyclopedia
Kevin Byrne was Mayor of the City of Cairns
City of Cairns
The City of Cairns was a Local Government Area centred on the Far North Queensland city of Cairns. Established in 1885, for most of its existence it consisted of approximately around Cairns itself, with much of the metropolitan area being located in the Shire of Mulgrave...

 in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, from 1992 to 1995, and then from 2000 to 2008. Tom Pyne
Tom Pyne
Thomas Alfred Pyne became the Mayor of Cairns when the Shire of Mulgrave and the City of Cairns merged in 1995. He was succeeded by Kevin Byrne.-Biography:...

, father of Cairns Regional Councillor Robert Pyne, was the Mayor of the Shire of Mulgrave from 1979 to 1995, then was re-elected to the first term of when the Shire amalgamated with Cairns from 1995 to 2000.

With the formation of Cairns Region, he was defeated by Val Schier for the position of Mayor of the new council.

Early life

He was born in Lae
Lae
Lae, the capital of Morobe Province, is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. It is located at the start of the Highlands Highway which is the main land transport corridor from the Highlands region to the coast...

, Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

 1949. His family had first arrived in Papua New Guinea in 1906 when his grandfather was appointed Chief Collector of Customs in Port Moresby. His primary education was on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. Attended Nudgee College, Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

 1963-67. doire abu.

Military career

He graduated in 1969 from Officer Cadet School
Military academy
A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps of the army, the navy, air force or coast guard, which normally provides education in a service environment, the exact definition depending on the country concerned.Three...

, Portsea, Victoria
Portsea, Victoria
Portsea is a resort town located across Port Phillip from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Mornington Peninsula....

 (OCS Portsea
OCS Portsea
The Officer Cadet School, Portsea was an officer training establishment of the Australian Army. Established at Portsea in Victoria, Australia, in 1951 to provide training to officer cadets prior to commissioning, for many years OCS provided the Australian Regular Army with the bulk of its junior...

) with an Australian Army
Australian Army
The Australian Army is Australia's military land force. It is part of the Australian Defence Force along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. While the Chief of Defence commands the Australian Defence Force , the Army is commanded by the Chief of Army...

 commission. He was awarded the Sword of Honour for Leadership in that year. His 17-year military career included Australian and overseas postings to Malaysia, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

, Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...

 and South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...

. As a young Infantry Platoon Commander in South Vietnam, he was Mentioned in Despatches for gallantry in 1971. His final military assignment was as a Senior Instructor at the Royal Military College, Duntroon
Royal Military College, Duntroon
The Royal Military College, Duntroon is the Australian Army's officer training establishment. It was founded at Duntroon, in the Australian Capital Territory, in 1911 and is situated on picturesque grounds at the foot of Mount Pleasant near Lake Burley Griffin, close to the Department of Defence...

, 1987.

Working life

Regional Manager Office of Northern and Regional Development, Cairns 1987-90: fast tracking regional development projects; identifying development and employment opportunities in Far North Queensland
Far North Queensland
Far North Queensland, or FNQ, is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. The region, which contains a large section of the Tropical North Queensland area, stretches from the city of Cairns north to the Torres Strait...

; interfacing between the private sector and the government. In 1990 became regional manager of the Queensland Confederation of Industry, the State's largest employer organisation.

Elected Mayor of Cairns
Mayor of Cairns
This is a list of mayors of the Far North Queensland city of Cairns.Cairns was originally established as a Borough with a Chairman from 1885 until 1903, when the Local Authorities Act 1902 transformed it into a Town with a Mayor. The Town achieved City status in 1923. In 1995, when the Shire of...

 1992; re-elected 1994. Defeated by Tom Pyne 1995 following the amalgamation of City of Cairns
City of Cairns
The City of Cairns was a Local Government Area centred on the Far North Queensland city of Cairns. Established in 1885, for most of its existence it consisted of approximately around Cairns itself, with much of the metropolitan area being located in the Shire of Mulgrave...

 and Mulgrave Shire. Recruited to administer a giant oil spill cleanup operation, funded by the World Bank and European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, in the Kolva Basin, in the Komi Republic, part of the Russian Federation. The Pechora River tributaries were remediated and 146,000 tonnes of oil were recovered in the biggest oil spill clean up on record.

Chief Executive of the Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority December 1995. Member of the national negotiating team for bilateral air service agreements; Acting Chairman of the National Airline Commission for two years; Deputy Chairman of AIR NIUGINI for eighteen months; National Delegate to the APEC Working Groups on Tourism and Trade.

Returned to Cairns December 1999 ; re-elected as Mayor of Cairns on 25 March 2000 and again in March 2004.

Awards

The Papua New Guinea Independence Medal (25th Anniversary) for services to Aviation and Tourism, 2000; the Australian Centenary Medal for services to Local Government and the City of Cairns, 2003.

Memberships of organisations

  • Member - Liberal Party of Australia
    Liberal Party of Australia
    The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

  • Member - ULGAQ Executive
  • Member - Australian Institute of Company Directors
  • Member - Cairns Unity Team

External links

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