Edwin Vernon "Chum" Taylor—Tribute
Statement
Hon Dan Caddy (North Metropolitan Region—Parliamentary Secretary) (6:39 pm): Tonight I rise briefly to remember one of the real characters I have met during my 30-odd year journey with the WA Labor Party. On Saturday 19 April, we lost Chum Taylor, less than two weeks after his 98th birthday. His full name was Edwin Vernon Taylor but I, like many, only ever knew him as Chum.
A proud member of the Balcatta branch of the Labor Party in his later years, Chum had an opinion on every single motion that was ever put at a meeting. Although Chum was already around 80 years of age when I first met him, I can confidently say that I have spent more time in total at branch meetings talking to Chum than any other branch member or colleague ever. My particular favourite was when Chum would start a contribution with, "You know, I used to be a member of the Liberal Party", and then would go on to explain why that gave him a background as to why we should either stand firm on a point that we were discussing, or a point of difference, or to do something or other that we were talking about.
Chum's knowledge of what had happened in politics went back to well before I was born. This is interesting, because Chum was a champion in his own right, with such an incredibly full life in his early years. He was a local boy, born in Perth, quite literally on the banks of the Swan River at the base of Kings Park. To this day, he is the only Western Australian to win points in a World Speedway final—a feat he achieved in 1960. Chum was Australian Speedway champion in 1966, and five-time WA Speedway champion. Chum was known as the "Master of Claremont"—a reference to the old Claremont Speedway that was located at Claremont Showgrounds, which was opened the year Chum was born and held its last race in 2000. His racing career spanned 25 years and took him to the British Speedway League, as well as England, New Zealand, Holland, Sweden, Venezuela and even Goomalling. He was inducted into the Australian Speedway Hall of Fame in 2024—this coming a year after receiving a Medal of the Order of Australia for his contribution to motorsport.
As I said, Chum was a character at branch meetings and one of the members I most looked forward to seeing at regular branch meetings during my time as secretary and president of that branch. He always, always had a position on what was being discussed, and his position was always well thought through.
Vale Chum Taylor OAM.
House adjourned at 6:42:06 pm
Questions on notice answered today are available on the Parliament of Western Australia's website
