Tim Mulherin: Wife and sons’ loving tribute 12 months on
The family of Tim Mulherin have given a heartfelt tribute to the man considered one of Mackay’s fiercest advocates 12 months after he lost his battle to cancer.
Mackay
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Outwardly he is remembered as an energetic and passionate politician, one of Mackay’s fiercest advocates dedicated to the regions, but Tim Mulherin’s favourite pastime was simply being at home with his family.
The sound of a vacuum cleaner humming throughout the Mulherin house at 5.30am as Tim got stuck into the domestic duties was a common occurrence when he was back from a work trip.
His wife Erin laughs as she and her sons lovingly recall the simple but heartfelt memory of Tim just doing what he loved the most – being a hands on family man.
“He would just do everything for us, he loved making us happy,” Erin said.
“He was more than happy to come home and get into the housework.
“Especially at the early hours in the morning,” youngest son Rory added with a smile.
Tragically, the 63 year old lost his fight with lung cancer on September 7, 2020 but his larger than life personality lives on as his loving family pay tribute to his kind heart and zest for life 12 months on from his passing.
“I’d give anything to have him back for one more day,” Erin said.
“I miss his sage advice and his level head.”
“He used to call a thousand times a day … literally just to talk about nothing,” eldest son Declan said, shaking his head with a smile.
“It was annoying at the time, but now you’d do anything to have one more.”
With his 20-year political career often taking him away from his family, Tim would ring “whenever he had five minutes”, Erin said.
“So all of us would often get a number of calls a day when he was working,” she said.
“You’d have 15 conversations with him … that was his way of keeping in touch with us all.
“In the family everyone knows that that’s just what Tim did, he just used to ring all the time. His phone was permanently attached to his ear.”
When Tim was home he was always hands on be it at the sidelines watching his three sons play sport, getting into the housework or spending time with his beloved pets.
“He didn’t actually like being away for work,” Erin said.
“He loved coming home and he liked things to just be very normal.
“And he just did whatever he thought made us happy, which is … helping me out around the house, getting the kids where they needed to be.”
Understandably the past 12 months have been hard, but Erin and the boys stay strong with the support from their family and friends.
“He was my life partner and he’s not here anymore,” she said.
“But we’ve been very lucky, we have so much family and friends who have looked after us and kept us busy.
“I try to keep my focus on how lucky we are and what we do have.”
Erin, then a court stenographer, met Tim at the Criterion Hotel in Rockhampton when he was volunteering on the 1993 Federal Election campaign trail.
She spotted him carrying drinks from the bar wearing a faded denim shirt and thought, he looked like a “really nice man”.
Former Mackay barrister the late Judge Brian Harrison introduced them. “And he was calling mum Erin Mulherin that night,” Rory said.
The pair bonded over their Irish heritage and that was it. They were married in 1995 and later had three boys, Declan, 24, Liam, 22 and Rory, 19.
“He changed more nappies than I ever did,” she laughed.
Erin shared that when the pair met Tim had been 36 and until that point had not thought having a family was in his future, so when that happened he loved being involved in every aspect.
Their West Mackay house where Tim lived for many years of his adult life was always full of compelling conversations about current affairs.
“We always had good conversation in the house … he always broadened our minds with his sharp intellect,” Erin said.
“And Tim was a traditional, old school man.
“He came from that era where he took it very seriously about being the provider for his family. He went to work, and he worked very hard.”
He was very family orientated, which stemmed to the broader family as Tim made sure he stayed in touch with everyone.
“He was the one who kept everyone else engaged with each other,” Erin said, a role Rory has since taken on.
Popular in the region he was dedicated to, Tim was well known for engaging at a grassroots level with his community and people from all different backgrounds considered him a friend.
“He was just genuinely interested in people, whether you were family or friends or someone he just met two minutes ago,” Erin said.
From his lengthy political career Tim left many legacies behind with some of his proudest work including with Mackay Base Hospital, Harrup Park and Mackay Entertainment and Convention Centre.
But Erin said there were two things her husband had really held close to his heart – one was his work in securing a Vietnam veterans facility.
“The other one … a particular constituent rang him one night who was very distressed and very upset about a situation she was in,” Erin said, describing a night etched in her memory.
“And Tim just stayed on the phone with her.
“He handed then phone over to me and I stayed talking with her until Tim got in the car and drove over to where she was to make sure that her friend met her.
“That’s just what he did because it was the right thing to do. He just always seemed to know the right thing to do.
“He was very generous with his time.”
Animals were always a big part of his life, Erin said. “He loved animals … he was a bit of an animal whisperer,” she said.
Rory recalled not long after his father his been made Minister responsible for animal cruelty, the family had hosted a barbecue at their home.
“We were all killing cane toads with out hockey sticks in the backyard,” he said.
“He pulled me aside and said ‘Erin, I’m the Minister responsible for cruelty to animals, please stop the children from killing the cane toads’,” Erin laughed.
Tim’s cancer diagnosis came as a massive shock for the family. It came three days after he had an operation on his heart.
“That all went really well and then the next day … he started to feel really unwell,” Erin said.
A CT revealed a tumour. “We were just heartbroken, but I think Tim went to the acceptance level very quickly,” Erin said.
“He was lucky though that even though his body was not coping too well with the treatment he actually felt pretty OK … between when he was diagnosed and when he passed away.
“I’m grateful for that. When he was diagnosed they said 17 months and he made it to 10.
“Even when he passed away it just all happened so quickly.
“It’s one of those things, you know it happens to people, but you don’t think it’ll happen to you and when it does you just have to keep going.”
Erin said her boys just “carrying me along” and the family has many wonderful memories including celebrating his 60th birthday at O’Donohue’s pub at Ireland.
“He loved his Irish heritage,” Erin said.
“He was in his element that night, and that whole trip.”
Rory recalled when Tim had chosen to attend his high school reunion instead of taking up his invitation to hear Barack Obama speak in Brisbane.
“I was like … that’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Rory said.
“He said, you never know when you’re going to see your old classmates again it could be some of their last ones.
“Turns out it was his last ever high school reunion.”
Erin said the family pet papillon Mac gave Tim a lot of joy and comfort following his diagnosis.
“He loved Mac,” Erin said.
Some of the best advice he gave his sons was work hard and be kind.
“If you put in enough effort and time then good things will come,” Declan said.
“Tim wasn’t ever a fence sitter … and he didn’t throw stones at people … he was a contributor,” Erin said.
“That was one of the things I loved most about him, he would put his hand up, he wasn’t afraid to get into something if he thought it was the right thing to do.
“What I try to take from Tim is to try and contribute positively because that’s what he did.”
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