Former PM Gough Whitlam began his career in the shire

Mr Whitlam and his wife Margaret lived at Cronulla, where they raised four children, in the years after World War II ended.

After unsuccessfully running for Sutherland Shire Council and the state seat of Sutherland, he won a 1952 by-election for the federal seat of Werriwa, which then included a large part of the shire.

The electorate was broken up before the 1955 election and the new seat of Hughes established, leading the Whitlams to move to Cabramatta, but they retained a soft spot for the shire and returned for many community events.

Mr Whitlam served with the RAAF during the war and was discharged with the rank of flight lieutenant navigator in October 1945. He resumed his law studies and was admitted as a barrister in 1947.

That year, with the help of a war service housing loan, the Whitlams built a house in Wangi Street, Cronulla.

Mr Whitlams' first foray into politics was the Sutherland Shire Council election.

After he went on to much higher public office, former shire president (mayor) Arthur Gietzelt jokingly told him he "would have made a good councillor".

The National Archives of Australia series on Australian prime ministers said that when Mr Whitlam was seeking election, "the family did not own a car and most of Whitlam's campaigning was door-to-door along unfinished streets in the rapidly growing southern suburbs".

"He was not elected to either seat but the campaigns made him a well-known local figure," it said.

"Whitlam was involved energetically in everything — the suburban progress association, his children's school parents and friends association and the Returned Servicemen's League."

He won rounds of radio's Australian National Quiz Championship in 1948 and 1949, and was runner-up in 1950. After he won Werriwa, he bought the family's first car and a hat, which was "essential to the politician's outfit".

Gough Whitlam was upbeat when he opened Gymea Lily Festival just three weeks before the sensational dismissal of his government in 1975.

The Opposition had used its majority in the Senate to defer passage of the budget and the government was without a supply vote to continue operating.

Mr Whitlam and his wife Margaret received ‘‘a tumultuous welcome’’ at the fair, organised by Gymea Bay Public School P&C Association, the Leader reported.

He told the ‘‘thousands of people’’ gathered he had not intended to ‘‘talk politics’’ at the community event, but he would continue ‘‘to keep fighting’’ and was ‘‘pretty confident’’ of success.

Mr Whitlam recalled the years his family lived at Cronulla and how amenities had improved since.

He said he was pleased changes his government was making in this area, requiring the co-operation of the states, had been declared ‘‘constitutionally valid’’.

‘‘I have been studying the Constitution a lot for the past few weeks,’’ he said in reference to the political deadlock.

‘‘I have a lot of respect for it and am determined to preserve it.’’

Earlier that year,  Mr Whitlam had officially opened the beachside Cronulla Sport Complex, which included two swimming pools, squash courts, sauna and gymnasium and cost £277,000 ($554,000).

For 25 years, Mr Whitlam had been vice-president of Cronulla Surf Life Saving Club, which built the complex.

PARTY PRAISE

Doug McClelland, who knew Gough Whitlam from his time as a young barrister, described the former PM as ‘‘a great Australian visionary’’.

Mr McClelland, who has moved from the family’s long-time home at Blakehurst to Dolls Point in recent years, served in the Senate from 1962 to 1987 and was a minister in the Whitlam government.

‘‘Gough made Australia a nation in its own right,’’ he said.

‘‘There were so many achievements, such as giving Australia its own national anthem, abolishing appeals to the Privy Council [in Britain], introducing our own honours system, ending conscription and bringing our troops home from Vietnam. He was an enormous thinker for Australia.

‘‘Gough had a massive physique, massive intellect, he was massive in every sense of the word.’’

Mr McClelland said Mr Whitlam’s experience in raising a young family at Cronulla without the sewer ‘‘made him determined that when he got the chance, he would sewer the whole of Sydney and other capital cities’’.

‘‘Today it would be a national health crisis if Sydney didn’t have the sewer,’’ he said.

What are your memories of Gough Whitlam?