Alan Charles Bird (28 September 1906 – 21 July 1962) was an Australian politician. Born in

Launceston, Tasmania Launceston () is a city in the north of Tasmania, Australia, at the confluence of the North Esk River, North Esk and South Esk River, South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River, Tasmania, Tamar River (kanamaluka). As of 2021, the Launc ...

, he was educated at state primary schools in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

and at

Melbourne High School Melbourne High School is a Education in Australia#Government schools, government-funded Single-sex education, single-sex Selective school, academically selective secondary school, secondary day school for boys, located in the Melbourne suburb ...

before becoming an engineer. As an official with the Amalgamated Engineers' Union, he was associated with the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

. Bird was elected to Northcote City Council in 1930 at the age of only twenty-fourAndrew Lemon (1983), ''The Northcote Side of the River'', Hargreen Publishing Company, North Melbourne, p. 226. and served continuously on the council for the remainder of his life. Twice (in 1940–1941, and again in 1958–1959) he served as Northcote's mayor.Lemon, page 260 He was elected to the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. ...

in 1949 as the Labor member for

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

. The demands made by Bird's concurrent service on both Northcote Council and the federal parliament were certainly prejudicial to his health. He died in July 1962.

References

Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Batman Members of the Australian House of Representatives 1906 births 1962 deaths People educated at Melbourne High School Australian MPs 1949–1951 Australian MPs 1951–1954 Australian MPs 1954–1955 Australian MPs 1955–1958 Australian MPs 1958–1961 Australian MPs 1961–1963 {{Australia-Labor-representative-stub