Gabbedy, John Phillip (Jack) (1906–1991)
G GABBEDY, JOHN PHILLIP (JACK) and 1945), East Fremantle; aboard the cruiser (1906–1991), banker and government adviser, HMAS Adelaide in Australian waters (1943); was born on 19 September 1906 at Menzies, and at shore establishments in Queensland, Western Australia, eldest of seven children of New Guinea, and New South Wales (1943– Victorian-born parents John Ernest Gabbedy, 45). On 7 December 1945 he was demobilised engine driver, and his wife Marcella, née at Leeuwin. Sherlock. In 1912 the family moved to In 1945 the development-focused Fremantle where Jack attended Christian Agricultural Bank was reconstituted as Brothers’ College. He joined the State a State-owned trading bank, the Rural and Department of Lands and Surveys in 1922 and Industries (R&I) Bank of Western Australia. was assigned to work on the newly established Gabbedy had been identified as one of its group settlement scheme, championed by ‘up-and-comers’ (Spillman 1989, 130) and Premier (Sir) James Mitchell [q.v.10] with the in December 1945 was despatched to open aim of attracting British migrants to develop a branch at Carnamah in the Mid-West region, new farms that would boost domestic food where he again threw himself into community production. Intelligent and well-organised, life. He later managed branches at Narembeen Gabbedy attracted the notice of William (Bill) (1947) and Manjimup (1948–53) and, in Vickery, a key figure in the administration 1953, was promoted to officer-in-charge of the of the scheme. By the age of twenty-one, securities department at the Perth head office. he was responsible for the scheme’s stock Five months later the sudden death of the records, a task involving frequent visits to the only R&I commissioner with rural experience south-west of the State.
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