Mason’s Trowels from the McCallum Collection

Object #33 is the set of mason’s trowels held in the McCallum collection. Alex McCallum was a friend and mentor to John Curtin. He served as Minister for Public Works, Labour, Water Supply and State Trading Concerns from 1924 to 1930, and 1933 to 1935.  His collection holds a number of objects that provide a material connection to public works and local government building projects in Western Australia of the 1920s and 1930s.

The mason’s trowels were presented to Alex McCallum between 1924 and 1934 at foundation stone laying ceremonies for a range of buildings.. With lacy engraving on silver plate or brass, and with fine bone or turned wood handles, a few of these tools are a bit too pretty for buttering mortar.

JCPML00839/16  Katanning District Hospital, 11th October 1924

JCPML00839/15 Quairading Road Board Offices and Hall, 23rd May 1925

JCPML00839/18 White Gum Valley School, 12th September 1925

JCPML00839/14 Quairading Road Board Hall extension, 10th April 1934

One, however, is also related to the death of a much loved footballer and cricket player.

Doig Memorial

JCPML00839/17 was presented to Alex McCallum at the laying of the foundation stone for the building of the Ron Doig Memorial Ward at Fremantle Hospital, on October 8th, 1933.

Ronald Doig was the captain and coach of South Fremantle Football Club. In September 1932, Doig was injured during a semi-final game played at Leederville, and tragically died as a result of his injuries. John Curtin, who was writing the sports page for the Westralian Worker at the time, in a long column about the game described the tragedy –

‘Now in the blush of early manhood he has been cut off like a flower. It is pitiful, O most pitiful!’  (Westralian Worker, 23 Sept 1932, p8).

The community outpouring of grief was channelled into a significant fundraising effort, and with a promise from the state government to match the funds raised pound for pound, a fundraising campaign was established to build a much needed ward at Fremantle Hospital. This was a champion effort to perpetuate the memory of a champion sportsman, and in twelve months the building project commenced. The ‘modern outpatients and casualty ward’ named in honour of Ron Doig was officially opened just under two years after his death, on August 26th 1934.

McCallum Memorial

Alex McCallum was elected as the Member for South Fremantle in 1921. Following many energetic years in politics, Alex McCallum resigned from the rough and tumble game of politics in 1935 when he accepted appointment as Chairman of the Agricultural Bank. McCallum did not live for many years after and died in 1937.

The Alexander McCallum Memorial Block at Fremantle Hospital was opened in his memory in March, 1939.

For more about Alex McCallum see Alex McCallum.