Debates Day 2 - Wednesday 23 November 1994
Parliamentary Record 6
Debates for 7th Assembly 1994 - 1997; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 7th Assembly 1994 - 1997
1994-11-23
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
English
Debates
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
Darwin
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Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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https://hdl.handle.net/10070/281606
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/414128
DEBATES - Wednesday 23 November 1994 w ork on the railways as a ganger. Under very primitive living conditions, John and Bridget went on to have 4 more children. One o f the children who had arrived by boat was Michael John. He was one year old in 1879 when the family migrated from Ireland. M.J. Hannon grew up in Goulburn but, as soon as he could, he went to Sydney where he worked in the gasworks. This was during the period o f World War I. He also worked on cattle and sheep stations in New South Wales, as a cane cutter at Murwillumbah and, for a time, managed a wine bar at Glebe. At about this time, MJ married Claire Johnston who had an Irish background. Claires family were living in the Wedding Mountains in N ew South Wales. One o f their 2 children, the founder o f the Northern Territory Hannon empire, was born in Glebe in 1917. Mick Hannon and his sister, Eileen, were reared at Bankstown and, like his father, Mick also left home early to seek employment. He was off before he was a teenager. His mate, John Ross, went with him and they carried their swags, jumping trains on their way to Queensland. They worked all over the north, with a couple o f working trips into Papua N ew Guinea. At this point, they associated with the famous Errol Flynn who was a larrikin o f some notoriety. For a time, Mick was involved in a fishing boat in Townsville. Regrettably, both MJ and Claire Hannon died before World War II and Mick established a family base with the Ross family in Sydney. Mick had a mechanical mind and he trained with AWA Wireless and worked with Australian National Airlines at Mascot. Reg Ansett was well known to him during this time and Mick often rubbed shoulders with him in the early aviation environment. The wanderlust descended on Mick and, before World W ar II, he came to the Northern Territory and worked as a pipe layer with his mate, John Ross. During this time, he also worked as a coxswain on the Karew which was a coastal patrol boat used to supervise the pearling fleet. As a result o f this experience, Mick was invited to join the Navy, but he refused when he was told that a ranking was not available. Like many Territorians, Mick Hannon was evacuated prior to the bombing o f Darwin. He returned to Sydney where he worked at Mascot on servicing aircraft on behalf o f the Americans. Mick Hannon met Essie O Donnell at a dance in Sydney and they married in April 1945. Mick wanted to return to the Territory, and he headed up to Tennant Creek with his best man, John Ross, where they worked until the government would permit them to return to Darwin. Essie was a seamstress and dressmaker and, during the war, she made uniforms for the service personnel. Finally, the couple were reunited in Darwin. Audrey Kennon was on the same plane from Sydney. Accommodation was in short supply and they lived in a room at Roslyn Court which was owned by Nick Paspaley Senior and named after his first-born daughter, Roslyn. Roslyn Court had a snooker room downstairs and adjoined the Rendezvous Cafe which was in the hands o f the Kanaris family. Mick and Essie soon tired o f their one-room accommodation. Mick, who by this time had opened a motor repair shop known as Bridge M otors - which was the forerunner o f todays Bridge Autos - bought an ex-Army fibro hut in Margaret Street. In time, they bought the hut next door and this holding became the Hannon family home until Essie passed away in 1993. 1874