Biography of Sir William McKell
Sir William McKell (1891-1985) was Premier of NSW from 1941 to 1947 and Governor-General of Australia from 1947 to 1953. He is known as the founder of the Kosciusko National Park, and the McKell Medal for excellence and achievement in natural resource management is a permanent reminder of his lifelong commitment to soil and water conservation.
William John McKell was born in Pambula, a village on the NSW South Coast on 26 September 1891, the son of a rural butcher put out of business by the 1890's drought. His father later deserted the family in a search for work.
McKell left school at 13 to take up an apprenticeship as a boilermaker, eventually becoming the Assistant Secretary of the Boilermakers Union. He joined the Labor party, and in 1917, at the of age 25, was elected to the NSW Legislative Assembly as the Member for Redfern.
On 7 January 1920, McKell married Minnie May Pye, a 26-year old tailoress from the Sydney suburb of Annandale, in St Aidan's Anglican Church, Annandale. They had three children; Betty, born in 1920, Patricia, born in 1927 and William, born in 1928.
In September 1933 McKell realised a long-held ambition to buy a farm. He bought 'Frog's Hole', an 875 acre (354ha) property near Goulburn for £7 ($14) an acre. McKell re-named the property Kulathirrie, meaning frog in the Dieyerie language. It was here that William McKell's passion for soil conservation began.
The property was badly degraded by soil erosion. In the years that followed McKell built a small cottage, improved the pastures, applied soil conservation techniques, and began breeding Corriedale sheep, Clydesdales, racehorses and trotters. He also developed an understanding of the farming community and their problems, particularly those associated with soil erosion, catchment degradation and the poorly-designed Soldier Settlement schemes which followed the First World War.
During this time he became friends with Agricultural Officer, Sam Clayton, a man regarded by many as the father of soil conservation in NSW. On his property McKell worked closely with the NSW Soil Conservation, undertaking demonstrations of erosion-control techniques.
Sam Clayton held strong views on the importance of soil conservation to Australian agricultural production, and from as early as 1930 had been lobbying the NSW government to establish a Department of Soil Conservation, separate from the Department of Agriculture.
While in Opposition McKell strongly supported the NSW Soil Conservation Act, passed in October 1938. This Act led to the establishment of the first Soil Conservation Service in Australia, with Sam Clayton as its Director.
McKell led Labor to victory in the 1941 election, becoming Premier of New South Wales. In his election campaign he identified water conservation as the key to Labor's rural policies. As Premier, McKell established expert committees to advise him on soil conservation, rural reconstruction, and the diversion of the waters of the Snowy River to the arid interior of NSW.
The creation of Kosciusko National Park was one of McKell's great legacies. In January 1942 McKell toured Australia's high country for ten days, seeing firsthand the erosion caused by grazing in the Snowy Mountains. His government banned grazing over an area of 1.38 million acres (558,485ha) and established Kosciusko National Park in 1944.
Previous governments established the Soil Conservation Service of NSW, but the McKell government expanded it considerably. He arranged a comprehensive survey of the extent and nature of erosion throughout NSW and set up a number of soil erosion research stations. In 1944, McKell took the results of the survey of soil erosion in NSW to the Premiers Conference, where he pushed unsuccessfully for the establishment of a National Soil Conservation strategy.
Despite this, by 1946 Soil Conservation agencies were being established, and the Australian Government and States formed a Standing Committee on Soil Conservation (SCSC). The SCSC was established as an Australian Government/State coordinating body on soil conservation, to examine and recommend on soil conservation legislation, arrange training for appropriate personnel and facilitate exchange of information and other forms of mutual assistance between the various governments in Australia. It continues today as the Natural Resource Management Standing Committee.
Another major achievement of the McKell government was the declaration of 44,000 acres (17,807ha) of the Macquarie Marshes near Dubbo as a national fauna reserve in January 1944.
McKell played an important part in the Snowy Mountains hydro-electricity scheme. In 1941, as Opposition leader, he campaigned for a twenty-year program of construction to transfer westwards the water that flowed to the sea from the Great Dividing Range, including diversion of the Snowy River. As Premier, McKell established an expert committee, which recommended the waters of the Snowy be diverted to the Murrumbidgee River, mainly for irrigation. It was during this period that the seeds were sown for one of Australia's largest peacetime engineering projects, the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electricity Authority. In 1949, as Governor-General, McKell formally launched construction of the scheme at Adaminaby.
In the period following the end of World War II, McKell's Darling River Water Act provided for construction of 30 low-level weirs on the Barwon and Darling rivers, work resumed on Keepit Dam on the Namoi River and McKell turned the first sod on the Glenbawn Dam on the Hunter River, and the Burrendong Dam near Mudgee.
McKell resigned as Premier in 1947 after 29 years in the NSW parliament, and shortly afterwards Prime Minister Ben Chifley appointed him Governor-General of Australia.
He was only the second Australian citizen to be appointed to this position, and despite a political furore at the time, he eventually gained the respect of all sides of politics. When he relinquished office after his term as Governor-General expired in May 1953, the editorials were universally complimentary. He retained an interest in farming and spent most of his weekends at the farm near Goulburn.
In November 1951, while in London, McKell was invested as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) by the King at Buckingham Palace.
In retirement, McKell enjoyed life as a practical farmer near Goulburn with his family. Later he left the properties to his son Bill to manage, and he and Lady McKell moved to an apartment in Sydney’s Double Bay .
In 1984, the NSW Minister for Agriculture and Forestry, Jack Hallam instigated an award to honour Sir William McKell’s contribution to the development of a soil and water conservation ethic within Australia.
Politician, statesman, and committed conservationist, Sir William McKell died in 1985 aged 93. The memorial service in St Andrew's Anglican Cathedral in Sydney was attended by political and civic leaders and by ordinary Australians, confirmation that Sir William's career had touched people from all walks of life.
This biography of Sir William McKell is based on research conducted by Dr Baden Williams and the Australian Association of Natural Resource Management. Their efforts are gratefully acknowledged.