Everard McDonnell O'Brien (9 April 1907 – 17 August 1971) was an Australian politician who was a Labor Party member of the Legislative Assembly of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

from 1952 to 1959, representing the seat of Murchison. O'Brien was born in Nunngarra, a locality near the town of

Sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

in Western Australia's

Mid West The Mid West region is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is a sparsely populated region extending from the west coast of Western Australia, about north and south of its administrative centre of Geraldton and inland to east of W ...

region. He went to school in Mount Margaret, and afterward worked as a labourer and shearer. In the 1930s, he went to live in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, working initially as a labourer and later as a rail and tram conductor. O'Brien returned to the Mid West in the 1940s, prospecting at Big Bell for a period and later serving as secretary of the Yalgoo Road Board. He first ran for parliament at a 1947

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

by-election for Central Province, but lost to the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

's Harold Daffen.Everard McDonnell O'Brien
– Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 3 June 2016. O'Brien eventually entered parliament at the 1952 Murchison by-election, which was caused by the death of the sitting Labor member, William Marshall. He was re-elected at the

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

and 1956 state elections, but at the 1959 election was defeated by the Liberal candidate, Richard Burt. O'Brien remained in Perth after leaving parliament, dying there in August 1971, aged 64. He married twice, and had seven children in total, one of whom, Simon O'Brien, became a Liberal member of parliament.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OBrien, Everard 1907 births 1971 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly People from the Mid West (Western Australia) 20th-century Australian politicians