Darebin’s Australians: Immigrants to Citizens
Immigrants to Citizens Wurundjeri Rose, Shamrock & Thistle Germans Chinese Market Gardens Federation 1901 Lebanese Italian Fruiterers Henry P Zwar Populate or Perish Italians Greeks Macedonians Pastor Sir Doug Nicholls Industry Chinese Vietnamese Hmong India Arabic Community East Timor The Sudanese Faith Australia Card

Henry Zwar was a prominent citizen and businessman of German descent in Preston during the 1930’s. Born at Broadford, Victoria in 1873, he was son of Michael Zwar, a ‘Pribislaw’ passenger from the 2nd ship of German immigrants arriving to Melbourne in 1850. Mother Agnes Zimmer was the daughter of Westgarthtown’s Johann Zimmer.

Henry first worked in a Beechworth tannery which was operated by two of his older brothers, Albert and William, and he soon purchased an interest in it. Henry Zwar then moved to Preston in 1911 and took over the operation of the Parkside Tannery, at first working in partnership with his brother Albert until eventually taking full control in 1919. The Parkside Tannery employed more than 100 men and produced high quality leathers, mainly for the automobile and furniture upholstery trade. The leather from Parkside was renowned for its beautiful colouring, finish and softness, and was chosen to upholster the special railway car used by the Duke of Gloucester during his visit for Victoria’s centenary celebrations in 1934. It was also used in the Victorian Railways new ‘Spirit of Progress’ train introduced in 1937 to link Melbourne & Albury and for furniture in Australia House in London. Running the tannery was time consuming, but Henry found time to be involved in state and local politics as well as a prodigious number of community organisations and bodies.
At different times he was president of various leather industry bodies, such as the Victorian Master Tanners and the Federated Tanners of Australia.

MAYOR OF PRESTON
He served in the Victorian Parliament as MLA for Heidelberg from 1932 till 1945. Henry was an elected member of the Preston City Council from 1930 to 1934 during which he served a term as Mayor. At Beechworth his brother Albert was an upper house State Parliamentarian from 1922 to 1935.

SERVICES TO 1ST WORLD WAR VETERANS
It is not practicable to list all the organisations in which Henry Zwar was involved, but two of his abiding interests were social welfare and sport. During and after the 1st World War he spent much of his spare time helping servicemen. Undoubtedly his main acheivement was the assistance he gave to thousands of former diggers, enabling them to obtain pensions from the Repatriation Department. For his work he was awarded the Returned Serviceman League’s ‘Medal of Merit’,
the only Victorian citizen to be honoured after the 1st World War.
During the Depression years he not only donated money and leather to the unemployed, but he also organised committees both to collect for and feed them and their families. It was said that, “It was not an uncommon sight to see up to twenty people waiting to see him at his office - and no one went away empty handed” A generous supporter of hospitals, he was life Governor of six, including the Royal Womens hospital and the Royal Children’s Hospital.

PRESIDENT OF MANY SPORTING CLUBS
However his major interest was sport. In 1944 the Bulletin reported : “Henry Peter Zwar M.L.A., president of the Victorian Football Association in place of the late J. J. Liston, is a member of over 100 sports organisations and President of 40. This list includes every known Australian sport except two-up”.

At Preston he was president of, amongst others, the football, cricket, soccer, rowing, lacross, rifle and athletics clubs. A regular attender at Preston Football Club’s matches, it was his custom to take five ten-shilling notes and slip one into the palm of each of the five players he shook hands with after the game. He was also a trustee of the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Married in 1899 to Jane Cunningham, together they raised a family of three children - Beryl, Enid and Hermann. Jane was also active in community organisations, charities & auxillaries. She died in 1952 and Henry, known by then as “The Grand Old Man of Preston”, died in 1959. He had been awarded the OBE in 1950 for honorary services to Australia during the 2nd World War as a member of the Commonwealth Leather Industries Advisory Committee.

In his autobiography Henry Zwar explained his philosophy of life:
“I owe all my success in life to my mother who guided me along the right path. A big hearted women who fed every ‘Sundowner’ who came along - she gave them tea, breakfast and a parcel of food to carry them to the next town”.

He concluded by quoting the following lines,
“I shall pass through this world but once,
Any kindness I can show to any human being,
Let me do it now, not neglect or defer it,
For I shall not pass this way again.”

Extract from the book ‘WESTGARTHTOWN’ -
The German Settlement at Thomastown by - Robert Wuchatsh