Lambert McBride

Early life and work

Lambert George McBride was born on 3 April 1918 at Grady's Creek, about 10 kilometres from Kyogle in New South Wales (National Archives of Australia [NAA], 1940–1999, p. 1; Department of Education, 2026). The Queensland Department of Education describes him as "a Bundjalung, Yugambeh and Mulinjarli man" (Department of Education, 2026); his daughter has written that her father was Bungalung (McBride-Yuke, n.d.).

He worked as a bullock team driver, timber-getter, sugar cane cutter, railway fettler and bridge carpenter (Department of Education, 2026). He was a boxer too: in 1938 the Kyogle Examiner reported a four-round bout in which "Lambie McBride, 9.8, Grady's Creek" lost on points to Harry Heyman ("Boxing", 1938), and in 1946 he was fighting at Lismore as "Stan McBride, of Brisbane" ("Cubis beats McBride", 1946).

War service

In 1941 he was a mill labourer in South Brisbane. He enlisted at Annerley on 28 October 1941 and was called up for full-time duty with the 15th Battalion on 23 December, serving as a driver (NAA, 1940–1999, pp. 1, 3; Australian War Memorial [AWM], 1942). In 1942 the Army released him to work in the sugar industry, and he was discharged as an essential industry worker on 9 March 1943 (NAA, 1940–1999, p. 3).

His service medal waited for him for decades. In 1997 he wrote asking how to receive "my medal that you have kept for me over the last 55 years" (NAA, 1940–1999, p. 11), and his medals were later presented to him by the Governor of Queensland, Major General Peter Arnison (Department of Education, 2026).

Lambert and May

He married May Ross in Brisbane on 24 June 1942; they celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in 2002 (AWM, 1942; McBride-Yuke, n.d.). The family moved to Zillmere in 1956 (Department of Education, 2026). Their daughter Linda remembers that her parents "practised reconciliation long before it became a buzz word" (McBride-Yuke, n.d.).

The fight for rights

Working on the Brisbane wharves and in timber yards, he drew on the unions, writing to seamen, wharfies, building workers and meat workers for moral and financial support (Taigum State School, 2020). He became honorary secretary and later president of the Queensland Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (QCAATSI), and May was its publicity officer (Taigum State School, 2020; Sinnamon, 2017).

Together they drove across Queensland enrolling Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to vote, and campaigned against the Queensland protection laws and for a Yes vote in the 1967 Referendum (Department of Education, 2026). Days before the vote he wrote to the press: "We are quite ready to accept full citizen rights and full citizen wages too" (Sinnamon, 2017).

The fight did not end with the Referendum. In September 1968, as QCAATSI president, he chaired a session of a conference in Cairns; that evening he, Pastor Doug Nicholls and Charles Perkins were refused a drink at the Crown Hotel ("They couldn't get a drink", 1968). He took part in the negotiations that led to the National Aboriginal Advisory Council, and in the 1970s he joined Aboriginal Hostels Limited (Taigum State School, 2020), whose general manager later called him "as honest as the day is long" (McBride-Yuke, n.d.).

Legacy

He marched each Anzac Day with the Geebung-Zillmere RSL, and he was a life member of the Koobara Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Kindergarten and an adopted Elder of Taigum State School (McBride-Yuke, n.d.; Department of Education, 2026). He died in 2002 (Taigum State School, 2020).

Lambert McBride Park in Muller Road, Zillmere, carries his name (Roberts, 2004), and in 2007, the 40th anniversary of the Referendum, the Queensland Government announced the Lambert McBride Perpetual Bursary for Indigenous university students (Taigum State School, 2020). His campaign papers, kept by the family in a red suitcase, are now in the State Library of Queensland (Sinnamon, 2017).