William Frederick Farrar Crabtree (31 May 1915 – 12 July 2001) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House ...

from 1953 until 1983 and represented the Labor Party. Born in the

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

suburb of

Marrickville Marrickville is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Marrickville is located south-west of the Sydney central business district and is the largest suburb in the Inner West Council local government ...

, Crabtree was the son of an engineer, and was educated to intermediate level at Kogarah High School. He joined the ALP in 1931 and worked as a public servant initially for the

New South Wales Government Railways New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR) was an agency of the Government of New South Wales that administered rail transport in the colony, and then the state, of New South Wales, Australia, between 1855 and 1932. History The NSWGR built ...

. Later he served as an office-holder in the

Australian Railways Union The Australian Railways Union (ARU) was an Australian trade union in existence from 1920 to 1993. The ARU was an industrial union, representing all types of workers employed in the rail industry, excluding locomotive enginedrivers and tradesm ...

and the private secretary to

Clive Evatt Clive Raleigh Evatt (6 June 1900 – 15 September 1984) was an Australian politician, barrister and raconteur. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1939 until 1959. At various times he sat as a member of the Industri ...

from 1947 until his entry into parliament. Crabtree defeated

Douglas Cross Douglas Donald Cross (8 September 1892 – 9 July 1970) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1948 until 1953 and from 1956 until his death . He was a member of the Liberal Party. Biog ...

the incumbent member for the seat of

Kogarah Kogarah () is a suburb of Southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Kogarah is located 14 kilometres (9 miles) south-west of the Sydney central business district and is considered to be the centre of the St George area. Loc ...

, at the 1953 election. He retained the seat for the Labor Party at the next 10 elections. In the government of

Neville Wran Neville Kenneth Wran, (11 October 1926 – 20 April 2014) was an Australian politician who was the Premier of New South Wales from 1976 to 1986. He was the national president of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1980 to 1986 and chairman o ...

he was Minister for Lands and Minister for Environment between 1976 and 1980 and Minister for Police and Minister for Services from 1980 to 1981.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crabtree, Bill 1915 births 2001 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly People from Marrickville Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales 20th-century Australian politicians Ministers for customer service and digital government Ministers for the environment (New South Wales)