John Thomas Sweeney was born on 8 August 1863 at Campbelltown where his father was a farmer. He moved to Austinmer in 1882 and found employment at the North Bulli Colliery. He subsequently worked in the mines at Mt. Kembla, Corrimal and South Bulli. When explosions trapped miners in the pits at Bulli in 1887 at Mt. Kembla in 1902, J.T. Sweeney was among the rescue workers. From 1915 to 1931 he was secretary of the Southern District of the Australian Coal and Shale Employees’ Federation. On the death of A.A. Lysaght in 1933, J.T. Sweeney was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly to represent Bulli. He retired from parliament in 1947 and died at Russell Vale on 2 September 1947. |
