Family background
Patrick Frederick ‘Bluey’ Mooney was born on 17 January 1880 at Eurobodalla, NSW, the son of Thomas Mooney and Kate Browne. He married Bridget Josephine Collins (1880-1948) at Randwick on 25 October 1911 and they had 6 children. He lived at 58 Kepos Street, Redfern. Mooney died on 23 December 1942 at Lewisham, aged 62 years, and was buried in the Roman Catholic Cemetery at Botany. He left no will.
Occupation & interests
Patrick Mooney worked with his father managing hotels at Bega, Pambula and Tomerong and then the Railway Hotel in Bathurst before moving to Sydney in 1908. He worked as a tram conductor and later as a tram driver. During the Great Strike of 1917 he lost his job as a conductor and then worked in a mixed grocery business and as a labourer before rejoining the tramways in 1924. He was a Labour endorsed alderman from Surry Hills Ward with strong links with the union movement. For several years he was an official with the Tramway Workers Union.
Parliamentary service
On 23 December 1931, NSW Premier Jack Lang installed Patrick Mooney as a Lang Labor member in a Senate vacancy that resulted from the death of Nationalist Senator Walter Duncan. Mooney’s time in the Senate was short as the 1931 election had passed and Duncan’s term was due to expire on 30 June 1932. He contested the 1934 election as a Lang candidate but was unsuccessful, however, he remained an organiser of the Lang Labor group.
Local government service
Patrick Frederick Mooney was elected an alderman for Surry Hills Ward in 1920.
References
‘Advertising’, Sydney Morning Herald, 3 February 1920, p.9, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15883854
Geoffrey Hawker, ‘Mooney, Patrick Frederick’, The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate, https://biography.senate.gov.au/mooney-patrick-frederick/