 |
| Religious retail in
the Valley, 1949 . . . in the foreground is
McWhirters, where Protestants shopped; down the street
is T.C. Beirne for the Catholics. |
|
BRISBANE'S trams, that rattling yet appealing type of
transport, have long gone. The growth of the great suburban
shopping centres has made a trip to "town" to shop at the
"department store" a thing of the past. So, too, is the
religious bigotry that blighted this state for much of the
20th century.
A generation or so ago, however, public transport and
religion wielded great influence over where and how the people
of Brisbane shopped.
Until the early 1960s, Brisbane had five major department
stores: T.C. Beirne and McWhirters in the Valley, Finneys and
Allen & Stark in Queen Street, the City, and McDonnell & East
in George Street, the City.
"Mac & Easts", as it was known, attracted the matrons of
the established western suburbs. Later, the addition of a free
multi-storied car park made Mac & Easts the place to shop.
But both Valley stores had tram stops outside the front
door. How do you choose where to shop? Simple. The Protestants
shopped at McWhirters and the Catholics at T.C. Beirne.
The late Sir Theodor Bray, long-time editor of The
Courier-Mail, was known to remark that religious bigotry
in Queensland disappeared in his lifetime. Like a dark secret
in a family, the subject is rarely discussed, and almost never
in print.
In the old Queensland police force, there were the
"Masons and the Micks"
But it is an inescapable fact: For much of the 20th
century, Queensland was divided on religious lines and those
divisions have done much to shape the Queensland we know
today.
In the old Queensland police force, for example, there were
the "Masons and the Micks". The Masons were officers,
exclusively Protestant in their faith, who believed that
membership of a masonic lodge was no barrier to promotion; the
"Micks" were those officers, many from an Irish background,
who professed their Catholicism and banded together in a
fiercely tribal fashion.
In 1972, then police commissioner Ray Whitrod estimated
that 40 percent of his force were Catholics.
For the Irish Australian Catholic young man, the path out
of the working class was often through the police force, the
public service or the law, particularly in the early 20th
century.
Some job advertisements would carry the line: "Catholics
need not apply"
Historian Ross Fitzgerald has observed than many young
Catholics preferred to take their place in the public service
rather than go on to university.
With the Australian Labor Party in office for most of the
period before its split of 1957, Catholics in the public
service had their promotion assisted by Catholic ministers.
And, although Catholic influence waned, as recently as 1982
half the members of the Queensland Supreme Court were either
practising Catholics or had been educated at Catholic schools.
Compare this with New South Wales: Murray Gleeson,
appointed chief justice of the NSW Supreme Court in November
1988, was the first Catholic in that post. By then, Queensland
had had at least three Catholic chief justices. The fact that
current Chief Justice Paul De Jersey is a prominent Anglican
was considered to be a factor in his favour.
Even today, there are Brisbane law firms where the partners
are predominantly Catholic; the question "Where did you go to
school?" posed to job applicants is often a coded method of
determining religion.
Before legislation prevented such discrimination, some job
advertisements would carry the line: "Catholics need not
apply."
The government neglected state education in favour of
Catholic schools. Between the early 1930s and the late
1950s, not one new state high school was built in
Queensland.
According to Fitzgerald, one important consequence of the
close association between the Catholic Church and the state
government was the neglect of state education in favour of
church schools. "Significant state education in Queensland has
thus been effectively a post-1957 creation," he wrote.
Indeed. Between the early 1930s and the late 1950s, not one
new state high school was built in Queensland. The gap left
generations under-educated by comparison with Australians in
other states.
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