Reardon Family in Burnie Tasmania

Few families of the Burnie district have had greater involvement in time and variety of transport than John Reardon and his descendants, who have literally spanned the twentieth century phenomenon ranging from the horse and buggy days to the jet age.

John Reardon (born in Hobart, in 1854, the son of Owen and Johanna Reardon) , of Irish extraction, worked on construction of the Broken Hill-Port Pirie railway line towards the end of last century and came to Burnie with a young family in 1897 in the company of Mr. James Stirling, then recently appointed manager of The Emu Bay Railway Company Limited which was in the process of taking over from the Emu Bay and Mount Bischoff Railway Company.

 John Reardon was works supervisor and paymaster and immediately became involved in the extension of the railway line from Guildford Junction to Zeehan. He remained with The Emu Bay Railway Company for more than thirty years until taking over the Waratah Hotel in 1930 and then the Neptune Grand Hotel, Ulverstone for two years. He died in 1936, and is buried with his wife and daughter (Olive) in the Wivenhoe cemetery.

Meanwhile, son John junior, (Jack) also worked for The Emu Bay Railway Company for ten years, mostly as a locomotive driver. After two years in World War I, he established a general carrying business with horse and floats, a business which remained in the family for forty years.

He purchased the first commercial motor vehicle in Burnie in the mid-1920's. The family held the mail contract for the delivery of mails from the railway station and wharves to the Burnie Post Office.

In the devastating floods of 1929 which caused substantial loss of life on the North-West Coast, the Emu River road bridge at Burnie and both road and rail bridges across the Blythe River at Heybridge were washed away. John Reardon junior, had the hazardous task of driving over the Emu River railway bridge bouncing over the sleepers, inland to Natone and Blythe River crossing, rejoining the highway at Penguin and travelling as far as Forth to connect with the State railway service.

John Joseph Reardon was a mature thirty years old when he married Isobel Davies, daughter of Irishtown pioneers, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Henry Davies. Davies was born on a sailing ship sailing up the River Derwent in 1844; son-in-law John fared even worse, he was born in a tent in a railway construction camp in Victoria.

His widow, Mrs. Reardon (deceased) and their family of four children and thirteen grandchildren lived in Burnie. Cliff, (the eldest son) who began as an apprentice electrician in 1937, was with A.P.P.M. Limited for forty years and was one of the Company's oldest employees. Cliff died in 1993, and is buried in the Burnie Lawn Cemetery, with his beloved wife Ellen (known as "Bill") who died in December 2004.

Geoff (the younger son) sold the family carrying business in 1959 after fifteen years operation (he took over from his father in 1946) and until 1977 was a partner in the car sales and garage service business of John D. Loane Pty. Ltd. He has since retired and currently lives in Queensland. (2005)

The sisters are Mary (Mrs. Geoff Roughley) and Patricia (Mrs. Viv Clarke).