Vale QTU Life Member Keith Storey
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 129 No 2, 28 March 2024, page 6.
Born at Oakey on the Darling Downs and educated at Acland State School, Toowoomba South Boys School and Toowoomba State High School, Keith’s association with education was long and fruitful.
He attended Kelvin Grove Teachers College in 1951 and began his career as a primary school teacher in Toowoomba. Keith taught at various schools in Toowoomba and on the Darling Downs before being transferred to Charleville, where he taught for 10 years. When Year 8 was transferred to high school in 1964, Keith changed to secondary teaching and provided maths and science classes at Toowoomba State High School.
It was during his time as a teacher in the Darling Downs and South West that Keith experienced life as a country teacher – sleeping in railway cars or on the verandah of the local station house because there was no teacher accommodation, wages so low that one could not afford to pay for lodgings, schools which were little more than filled in spaces under high-set houses, class sizes of 40 to 60, and the dread of the annual inspectors visit, which compelled him to become a staunch advocate for teachers' conditions in his future.
During his time as a teacher, Keith’s involvement with the QTU was outstanding. Keith held a number of significant positions in an honorary capacity. His initial association with the Union was through regular sub-branch meetings in the Millmerran area. His move to Charleville saw his Union involvement increase, with Keith becoming a foundation office bearer of the Warrego Branch, formed in 1957. Keith held office in this branch for the next seven years. In 1962 and 1963 he was the Conference Delegate for the Warrego Branch and Council Representative for Darling Downs Secondary Branch from 1964 until 1969.
Following difficulties dealing with the Department of Education, State Council decided to employ a full time itinerant industrial officer to roam the state, helping teachers with problems they encountered and gathering first-hand data to prove the department was negligent in its management of the education process, resulting in a bad deal for students and teachers alike. Keith Storey was appointed by Council to fill this position in March 1969 and he took up duty on 28 July 1969.
As one of only four officers, Keith’s brief was to look after the interests of the 11,800 members of the QTU all over this vast state. It is no secret that the teachers and students of Queensland, and more specifically the Darling Downs and South West, owe Keith a great deal for the advances he achieved on their behalf.
Issues which have not gone away but which Keith helped make inroads into include: class sizes, teacher accommodation, working conditions in classrooms for teachers and students, transfer expenses and equality of men and women teachers.
Keith Storey spent a large portion of his life in the service of teachers, students, the Union and its members. Our Union has been in existence for 135 years, and Keith Storey played an increasingly important role in its functioning for 40 years of that time.
Members and officers who knew Keith have shared that many QTU meetings ended with Keith telling a story or two over dinner and a drink, with his party trick – popping out his glass eye – always ‘dropped’ into the conversations with newbies in the group. His stories included the great Labor Party split of 1955, and he had a great fondness for Chinese food in Roma.
He also loved a song or two or more.
He was responsible for so many members becoming activists and became a great friend, a mentor, and above all a comrade to thousands of QTU members and untold others across the community. He was the first QTU Organiser for the entire state and would remind us that his patch was three times the size of Victoria.
A character, a larrikin, a fierce adversary and the firmest of friends. Keith will live on in the legacy and memories of the QTU.