The Founding Father and The Voice

Mike Lefroy celebrates his great grandfather CY O’Connor, legendary AC/DC singer Bon Scott and the Mighty Freo Dockers!

The rider and his horse. Charles Yelverton O’Connor 1843 – 1902. The Founding Father.

Ronald Belford (Bon) Scott 1946 – 1980. Lead singer AC/DC 1974-1980. The Voice.

Charles Yelverton O’Connor and Bon Scott both died tragically – one on a lonely beach south of Fremantle in 1902 and the other 78 years later, on a wintery night in London, half a world away. Now they lie just a couple of drop punts apart in Fremantle Cemetery. Both inspirational men are part of the unfolding story of the Fremantle Dockers. O’Connor the engineer, who against the odds created Fremantle’s inner harbour; the other the lead singer of AC/DC an Australian rock group who blasted their way into the charts in the 1970s.

A common element in their stories is the invention of Dynamite by Alfred Nobel. This allowed O’Connor to blast away the rock bar at the mouth of the Swan River and create the harbour, and it was the inspiration for Bon Scott’s explosive chart-topping song TNT – it’s Dynamite.

AC/DC’s music is part of the soundtrack of the Fremantle Dockers. It signals the start of home games from high up in Optus Stadium and celebrates wins with a raucous energy that lifts the home crowd.

In making Fremantle Harbour, O’Connor built the rock moles that protect the entrance to the port, dredged the river to allow large ships to enter, constructed the wharves and cargo sheds, and created jobs for thousands of dockers, many of them East and South Fremantle footballers.

The original Wharfie Time was on Star Wars Day (May the fourth be with you) 1897. On that day Lady Forrest, the Premier’s wife, officially opened the Port by steering the ship SS Sultan alongside the wharf where the Maritime Museum now stands.

C Y O’Connor is my great grandfather and each 10th of March our family honours his life on the beach where he died. Our focus is the statue of O’Connor and his horse Moonlight, created by celebrated local sculptor Tony Jones, which stands 50 metres from the shore. We swim out and decorate the statue with flowers, sometimes joined by horses from nearby Randwick stables.

On special occasions we dress O’Connor in the livery of the football team he helped create. Today, Monday 14 September, three generations of our family swam out to prepare him for the battle ahead, which will hopefully lead to Premiership Glory.