Reginald James Halliburton (1934-2020)
Prepared by Laurie McLean with John Payne and Jan Halliburton
April 2020
Reg Halliburton circa 1985.
An XNatmap image.
In May 1978 Reg Halliburton joined Nat Map’s Queanbeyan Office as the map sales promotions officer (Clerk Class 6) in the Map Sales Section of the Planning and Coordination Branch. Reg came to Nat Map at the time the Division took over the sales of its maps and related products from the Head Office of the Department of National Development. Reg’s skills in the education field combined with his sales experience were seen as crucial to Nat Map successfully increasing the market and thus sales of its own products. Reg was a vital member of the team that developed a national and international network of retailers and wholesalers that contributed to the increased sales of Nat Map’s products. Revenue from these sales was critical in maintaining Nat Map’s annual budget as methods for determining budget allocations also depended on revenue received.
Early life - about Reg’s parents and paternal grandparents
Reginald James Halliburton was born in Sydney on 14 June 1934 to James Hayes Halliburton (1911-1979) and his wife Marjorie Estelle Halliburton née Nash (1909-2001). Reg was the first of his parents’ 3 children. Reg’s siblings were his sister Robyn (3 years younger) and his brother John (9 years younger).
On electoral rolls for 1933 and 1936, Reg’s father James Hayes Halliburton was listed as a shopkeeper. James Halliburton then resided with his wife Marjorie (listed as home duties) at 52 Mortlake Street in the inner western Sydney suburb of Mortlake. (Mortlake Street in now in Concord.) Here James and Marjorie operated a milk bar-mixed business. The business had been purchased for James by his father John Halliburton after James had been put off from his first job with Hooper and Harrison Limited when he reached 21 years of age.
Reg’s father James Hayes Halliburton was born in 1911 at Eyemouth in Berwickshire, Scotland and died in 1979 at Sydney at the age of 68 years. Eyemouth is on Scotland’s North Sea coast about 7 kilometres north of the border with England. James’ parents (Reg’s great grandparents) were John Halliburton (1873-1932) and his wife Eliza née Meek (1870-1950). From the image below it appears that the Meek family had been fish curers (preserving fish by smoking, pickling, etc).
John Halliburton was born at Swinton, Berwickshire (about 20 kilometres south west of Eyemouth) on 31 May 1873. Circa 1922 John and Eliza Halliburton resided at 19 Church Street Eyemouth. John Halliburton then worked as a tailor a calling he later continued in Australia until his death at age 59 years on 16 October 1932 in Sydney’s Western Suburbs Hospital.
17-19 Church Street Eyemouth Scotland in June 2016.
A Google street view image.
On 5 October 1912, Eliza Halliburton and her 5 children departed London for Sydney onboard the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company Limited’s 10 000 ton twin-screw steamer SS Pakeha under Captain Chudley. The Halliburton children indicated by their initials on the passenger list were Mr John (son), Mr David (son), Mr George (son), Miss Elizabeth (child) and Master James (child). Eliza’s husband John did not accompany his family on this voyage. Sometime after the voyage Eliza and her youngest child, James, apparently returned to Scotland.
SS Pakeha.
Paul Wilkinson image from Passengers in History website.
In 1922 the Halliburton family members then living in Scotland immigrated unassisted to Australia onboard the Pacific and Orient Steam Navigation Company’s twin‑screw vessel SS Barrabool of 13 000 tons under Captain R Bidwell. The Halliburton party on that voyage is listed in the following table:
|
Name and UK address |
Age |
Occupation |
|
John Halliburton, 19 Church Street Eyemouth, Berwickshire |
49 |
Tailor |
|
Mrs Eliza Halliburton, above address |
52 |
Wife |
|
James Halliburton, above address |
11 |
|
|
Miss Kate Robinson, above address |
23 |
Tailoress |
SS Barrabool in 1921.
Port Adelaide Nautical Museum image from Passengers in History website.
The SS Barrabool departed London on 5 October 1922 and arrived at Sydney (via Freemantle) on 27 November 1922.
Initially, Reg Halliburton’s paternal grandfather John Halliburton went into business as a tailor at St Marys (near Penrith) to the west of Sydney. Later John Halliburton shifted his business to Auburn.
By 1930 John and Eliza Halliburton were residing at 52 Macquarie Road Auburn together with a son John (junior). (Other family members were not listed on this electoral roll; some would have been too young.) Both men were occupied as tailors and Eliza was engaged in home duties. In 1932, the Halliburton family was listed as residing 52 Mortlake Street Mortlake with the same occupations as in 1930. This address was a 2-storey shop and was the premises from which James and Marjorie Halliburton operated their milk bar‑mixed business.
Until at least 1943, John Halliburton (junior) continued to work as a tailor after his father’s death in 1932. However, from 1934, John (junior) and his wife Edith resided at various addresses in the Auburn area. Between 1932 and 1943, James Hayes Halliburton (Reg’s father) continued to work as a shopkeeper while residing at 52 Mortlake Street. James’ wife Marjorie Estelle was recorded on electoral rolls between 1934 and 1943 as residing at 52 Mortlake Street and being engaged in home duties.
Reg’s father, James Hayes Halliburton, gained his Intermediate Certificate (Commercial) at high school. As a teenager in the mid-1920s, James had worked for the firm Messrs Hooper and Harrison Limited at 44 King Street Sydney. This firm, that also operated in other states, traded as woollen merchants and were importers and wholesalers of cloth and buttons. These were basic materials for the Halliburton family’s tailoring business.
In February 1925 when nearing his fourteenth birthday James Hayes Halliburton registered under the Defence Act 1903-1918 for the then universal obligation in respect of naval or military training. By the time he was 17 years of age James had served 12 months in senior cadets. From July 1928 James served as a gunner in the Militia Forces with 28 Battery in 21 Brigade, Australian Field Artillery. In January 1930 he was promoted bombardier, in June 1931 he was promoted lance sergeant, and in September 1936 he was commissioned as a lieutenant. No discharge date was given in James Halliburton’s Militia Forces service record for this initial period of engagement. However, between January 1942 and June 1943, James Halliburton served part‑time as a private with 11 Battalion in the Volunteer Defence Corps which was volunteer force based on the British Home Guard.
Reg Halliburton’s early life
Reg Halliburton was born on 14 June 1934 when his parents, James and Marjorie Halliburton, resided at 52 Mortlake Street Mortlake.
The former Halliburton family residence and mixed-business premises at 52 Mortlake Street Mortlake in December 2018.
A Google street view image.
By at least 1949 Reg Halliburton’s parents James and Marjorie Halliburton resided at 52 Macquarie Road Auburn North. James was then employed as a rubber worker with the Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Company (Australia) Limited in Granville and Marjorie was engaged in home duties.
Reg Halliburton’s formal education and training 1939-1957
Circa 1939, Reg Halliburton commenced his formal education at the Mortlake Public School in Brays Road about 400 metres from his home. Later Reg attended the Fort Street Boys’ High School that adjoins Parramatta Road in Petersham. Here Reg achieved the Leaving Certificate. Afterwards Reg trained as a school teacher, undertaking a 2-year course at the Bathurst Teachers College. The College commenced in 1951 on the site of the Bathurst Experiment Farm, it is now part of Charles Sturt University.
Army service
In 1953, Reg Halliburton had to defer the first term at Bathurst Teachers College to undertake compulsory national service training with the Australian Army. Under the national service scheme of the early 1950s, the Army service comprised a total of 176 days training. Reg spent an initial 98 days in a training camp undertaking basic military and corps training. His remaining 78 days of service were spent with a Royal Australian Armoured Corps (Citizen Military Forces) unit, the 1st Royal New South Wales Lancers, undertaking more intensive corps specific training. Under the national service scheme, there was a further period of 2 years in the CMF and then another 3 years on active reserve. (The CMF was renamed as the Australian Army Reserve in 1980.)
The Lancers were based at Lancer Barracks at 2 Smith Street Parramatta. Constructed between 1818 and 1820, it is the oldest military barracks on mainland Australia. In 1956 the 1st Royal New South Wales Lancers merged with the 15th Northern River Lancers to form the 1st/15th Royal New South Wales Lancers. After Reg and Jan Halliburton moved to Queanbeyan in 1963, Reg continued his Army service with a Canberra-based CMF unit. During his Army service Reg Halliburton was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. After completing his Army service Reg was awarded the Anniversary of National Service 1951-1972 Medal and the Australian Defence Medal. These medals are shown in the image below with the Australian Defence Medal on the viewer's left in accordance with the order of wear.
Reg Halliburton’s Army service medals.
Department of Defence images collated by Paul Wise.
School teaching 1958-1965
On 3 January 1958, confirmation of Reg Halliburton’s appointment as a (primary school) teacher with the then Department of Public Instruction was promulgated in the Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales.
Reg Halliburton’s first posting as a teacher was to Minto Public School at the corner of Pembroke and Redfern Roads about 500 metres east of Minto railway station. Reg used to travel to Minto by train from Auburn, a distance of about 30 kilometres to the south west from Auburn railway station.
On an electoral roll for 1958, Reg Halliburton was listed as a school teacher residing care of Mrs D Shaw at 52 Bombala Street Cooma. Reg was residing with Mrs Shaw while working as a relieving teacher at the Cooma Public School which was 2 blocks away in Commissioner Street. Around this time, Reg’s sister Robyn was teaching at North Cooma. Robyn Halliburton was then living in the same hostel in North Cooma as Jan McAleer who had moved from Sydney to take up a position with the head office of the Snowy Mountains Hydro‑electric Authority. Jan and Reg met in Cooma and after their marriage were only parted by Reg’s death some 6 decades later.
After relieving at Cooma, Reg was posted to a one-teacher school at Tantangara in the Snowy Mountains about 70 kilometres north west of Cooma. The school catered for the children of the workers at a Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Authority construction camp during the building of the Tantangara Dam on the Murrumbidgee River.
In 1960 and 1961, Reg Halliburton was teaching at the Fairfield Public School in Smart Street Fairfield in western Sydney. At a meeting of the Fairfield Parent-Teacher Council in April 1961, Reg Halliburton was elected as the representative of the Teachers' Federation.
Marriage to Jan McAleer 1962
At Goulburn in May 1962 Reg Halliburton married Janice Adrienne (Jan) McAleer. Jan was born on 29 February 1936 at Sister Hickey’s Ovada Private Hospital in Clinton Street Goulburn. Jan was the eldest of the 4 children born to Reginald Joseph McAleer (1893-1962) and his wife Ellen Mary (Nell) McAleer née Murphy (1904-1992). Jan McAleer’s parents Reg and Nell McAleer married at North Sydney in 1935.
Reg McAleer was one of the 10 children born to Charles McAleer (circa 1851‑1927) and his wife Bridget Agatha McAleer née Broderick (circa 1856‑1929). Reg was a wool classer who was born in the Goulburn district but prior to his marriage resided in the northern Sydney suburb of Mosman. Around 1935, the McAleers moved back to the Goulburn area where Reg managed his sister’s 1 000-acre property, The Pines, on the Pomeroy Road about 15 kilometres north west of Goulburn. The Pines joined both the Merrilla and Pomeroy properties. Pomeroy Station was managed by Charles McAleer for its owners the Dalglish family when Reg was born on the Station in 1893.
(Comprising some 10 000 acres on the Wollondilly River, Pomeroy Station was brought by a Thomas Woore in 1839 (he built the original homestead). Pomeroy was later owned by the Dalglish family from at least the 1890s. The Dalglish family subdivided and sold off some 2 600 acres of Pomeroy in 1941. By 1993 Pomeroy comprised some 1 600 acres and was owned by John Dalglish.)
In 1958, the then 22-year old Jan McAleer was residing at 201 Longueville Road Lane Cove and was occupied as a stenographer.
Reg and Jan Halliburton were to have 6 children: son Michael and daughters Virginia, Anita, Lisa, Belinda, and Jane. Sadly their third daughter Lisa Maree died as a 12-months old infant in November 1968.
Soon after their marriage in 1962 Reg and Jan Halliburton resided at 60 Cumberland Road Auburn in Sydney’s western suburbs. Here Jan continued to work as a stenographer and Reg as a school teacher at the Fairfield Public School.
Living in Queanbeyan 1963-2020
In 1963 Reg and Jan Halliburton moved to Queanbeyan where they resided at 40 Cameron Road. Initially Reg worked as a school teacher at the Queanbeyan Public School in Isabella Street. Jan was occupied in home duties as she undertook a primary role in raising their children. 40 Cameron Road (which is just under a kilometre south west of the Queanbeyan shopping centre) remained Reg Halliburton’s family home until his death in March 2020.
The Halliburton family home at 40 Cameron Road Queanbeyan.
A Google street view image March 2015.
On 24 May 1965 Reg Halliburton resigned as a teacher from the Education Division of the New South Wales Department of Education. The resignation was promulgated in the Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales on 10 September 1965.
Book salesman 1965-1967
After leaving the Department of Education in mid-1965, Reg Halliburton operated as a salesman and a sales team recruiter and manager for World Book Encyclopaedias. Reg operated this enterprise from his Queanbeyan home. Between mid-1965 and early 1967, Reg ran a series of sales promotion and workforce recruitment advertisements in The Canberra Times newspaper. Facsimiles of typical advertisements are provided in the Appendix.
Commonwealth Public Service 1967-1994
On 20 July 1967, Reg Halliburton’s appointment as a Clerk (Third Division) with the then Department of External Affairs was promulgated in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. Reg was to remain with this organisation for nearly 11 years until joining the Division of National Mapping in 1978.
In 1970, the Department of External Affairs was renamed the Department of Foreign Affairs and in 1987 became the present Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Reg Halliburton’s abilities were soon recognised within External Affairs/Foreign Affairs and he was steadily promoted up the clerical grades ladder. By July 1973, Reg had been promoted to a Clerk (Class 6) position in the Projects and General Services Section of the Aid Branch in Foreign Affairs’ Development Division. Here Reg monitored expenditure and commitments under various foreign aid training programs. His duties included preparing expenditure and commitment reports as well as statements on training expenditure for the Department’s annual, revised and forward estimates. Immediately prior to leaving the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1978, Reg was working in the then Australian Development Assistance Bureau now known as AusAID.
Diploma of Public Administration course 1968-1969
In 1968, Reg Halliburton commenced a diploma of public administration course at the then Canberra Technical College. Later that year the College became the Canberra College of Advanced Education (and in 1990 the College became the University of Canberra). Reg continued the diploma course in 1969. The subjects Reg took over these 2 years were: the Australian Economy, Statistics, Logic, Organisation Theory, Introduction to Law, and Australian Government and Politics, the last 2 subjects were undertaken in 1969.
Reg passed all the subjects he studied. However, following the death of Lisa Maree, their fourth child, in November 1968 Reg struggled with the work load from this course. He could only manage 1 subject in each semester of 1969 and afterwards discontinued the course.
National Mapping 1978-1994
On 18 May 1978, Reg Halliburton’s transfer from the Australian Development Assistance Bureau to the Department of National Development was promulgated in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. Reg’s transfer was to the Map Sales Section of the Planning and Coordination Branch within the Division of National Mapping, (Position No 1817). The transfer was at Reg’s substantive level of Clerk (Class 6).
Nat Map’s head office was then located in Morisset House, at 7-9 Morisset Street Queanbeyan, conveniently located about a kilometre from Reg’s home in Cameron Road. However, by the end of 1981 Nat Map’s head office had relocated to Unit 3 in the Cameron Offices in Chandler Street Belconnen, over 20 kilometres from Reg’s Queanbeyan home.
Reg was Nat Map’s map sales promotions officer. When he arrived at Nat Map, Reg’s specific role was to: develop and carry out a range of promotional campaigns and activities to promote the usage and sale of maps and publications produced by the Division. Develop and maintain regular contact with the sales agent network.
Prior to Reg Halliburton’s appointment to Nat Map, the sale of the Division’s maps and related products was undertaken by the parent organisation, then the Department of National Development. As well as a network of private sector map retailers, the Department had map sales facilities at its head office at Tasman House in Hobart Place at 26-30 Marcus Clarke Street in the Canberra city centre. The Department also had a sales facility at its Victorian Regional Office in 460 Bourke Street Melbourne.
Around the time of Reg Halliburton’s appointment to Nat Map, the Division established map sales facilities in its own offices in Morisset House Queanbeyan and later in the Cameron Offices at Belconnen. Nat Map also established a map sales facility at its Victorian office then in Ellery House at 280 Thomas Street Dandenong. Some of the staff from the Department’s map sales function transferred to the Division’s Map Sales Section, including Kevin Siebert in Queanbeyan and Judy Rodriquez (née Keogh) in Dandenong.
Under Commonwealth Government administrative arrangements that were gazetted on 24 July 1987, Division National Mapping functions were undertaken within the Department of Administrative Services by the subsequently formed Surveying and Land Information Group. (The Group was later renamed the Australian Surveying and Land Information Group.) These administrative arrangements followed the double dissolution Federal elections that were held on 11 July 1987. Following his 1985-1986 Review of Topographic Mapping Services, Jack Edwin Richardson AO (1920-2011) expressed the opinion that the Commonwealth should revert to having National Mapping and the Australian Survey Office located in the one Department under the one management, the Government concurred with Professor Richardson’s opinion.
Reg Halliburton with members of Nat Map’s Information and Sales Section in the Cameron Offices Belconnen in 1986. From left Bill Haalebos, Trevor Sherman, Alma Syphers, Reg, Ian Miller, Warren Webb, Kim Battye, and Kevin Siebert.
A Rodney Garnett photograph supplied by John Payne.
Reg Halliburton continued with the Australian Surveying and Land Information Group for a further 6 years after its creation in 1987. Reg retired from the Commonwealth Public Service as an Administrative Service Officer Class 5 on 24 September 1993, he was then 59 years of age. (Public Service positions had been redesignated from clerk to administrative service officer around 1990.)
Post-retirement pursuits
After he formally retired from the Commonwealth Public Service in 1993, Reg Halliburton spent a 6-year period working as an Attendant at the High Court of Australia on the southern shore of Lake Burley Griffin at Parkes in the Parliamentary Triangle. Reg enjoyed this work and the inspiring work venue.
Reg maintained his enduring interest in education. He had been a spokesman for the Queanbeyan and District Parents and Citizens' Federation in 1989. In 1990 he was the president of Queanbeyan High School Parents and Citizens. In 2008, he was recorded as a donor to his alma mater albeit then named the Charles Sturt University. Reg was an active member of the Bathurst Teachers College Alumni Association.
Reg Halliburton in Melbourne April 2019.
Image supplied by Jan Halliburton.
Vale
In his final years Reg suffered from prostate cancer and post-surgery complications. Sadly, on 26 March 2020, Reg Halliburton died from cancer‑related complications. Reg was 85 years of age. He died at the Warrigal Aged Care facility at 50 Canberra Avenue Queanbeyan. Reg was survived by Jan his wife of 58 years and by 5 of their 6 children as well their children’s partners and by 10 grandchildren.
At the time of Reg’s death, Australia and other countries throughout the world had introduced restrictions on social gatherings to help address the Covid-19 viral pandemic. As a consequence, Reg’s remains were privately cremated. Reg’s wife Jan and their children celebrated a memorial service for him at Tobin Brothers’ Chapel in Kingston on 7 April 2020. A memorial service for the interment of Reg’s ashes at Queanbeyan Lawn Cemetery has been postponed until funeral restrictions are relaxed.
Reg Halliburton was a respected work colleague and is fondly remembered by his fellow Nat Mappers from the 1970s and 1980s. Former Nat Mappers who knew Reg extend their condolences to Jan Halliburton and her family for their sad loss.
REgatta, 15-year old Belinda Haliburton’s entry in the open section of The Canberra Times’ December 1985 RE Drawing Competition.
Facsimiles of Reg Halliburton’s World Book Encyclopaedia advertisements
|
THE FIVE FOLD METHOD Part of World Book Encyclopaedia's five fold method is to outline or summarise each major entry, for example here is the outline on TRANSPORT: (I) How transport affects our lives. (II) Kinds of transport: A. On land. B. On water. C. In the air. (III) Aids to transport. (IV) Contrasts in transport. (V) Problems of transport: A. Climate and weather. B. Distance and geography. C. Problems of public transport. D. Safety. (VI) Government and transport: A. Local and provincial. B. National. C. International. (VII) Development of transport.
Full price $158 – Terms $6 deposit. $6 per month. No interest charged.
R. HALLIBURTON 40 Cameron Road, Queanbeyan Phone 859
|
From The Canberra Times, Saturday 30 July 1966, page 13.
|
RENDER A SERVICE AND ADD TO YOUR INCOME If you like meeting people you can earn $24-$66 per week part time, or more full time. An international company, the largest in its field, is conducting a nationwide expansion programme. We require 6 men or ladies, aged 25-60 for outside customer interviewing. Car necessary. Choose your own working hours. Complete training given.
Apply in person to R. Halliburton at 9.30am or 10.45am or 7.30pm today at the Hotel Civic (guest entrance) or tomorrow (Wednesday) at the Coach House Motor Inn, Griffith.
|
From The Canberra Times, Tuesday 12 April 1966, page 12.