Kevin Byrne (Cairns Mayor)
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[edit] Early life
Kevin Byrne was born in Lae, Papua New Guinea in 1949. After completing primary education in Papua New Guinea, Kevin attended Nudgee College in Brisbane, completing his secondary education in 1967. He was commissioned into the Australian Army in 1969, when he graduated from OCS Portsea (An Officer Cadet School at Portsea, Victoria). He was awarded the Sword of Honour for Leadership in that year. Kevin’s seventeen year military career included overseas postings to Malaya, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Rhodesia and South Vietnam, including postings throughout Australia. He was Mentioned in Despatches for gallantry as a young Infantry Platoon Commander in South Vietnam in 1971. His final military assignment was as a Senior Instructor at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1987.
[edit] Working life
Kevin Byrne was appointed as Regional Manager, Office of Northern and Regional Development, Cairns on his discharge from the army in 1987. This appointment involved fast tracking regional development projects as well as identifying development and employment opportunities in Far North Queensland and providing the interface between the private sector and the government. He held this appointment for three years before moving to the position of Regional Manager of the Queensland Confederation of Industry, the States largest employer organisation.
In 1992 Kevin Byrne was first elected Mayor of Cairns City. He was re-elected in 1994 before being defeated by Tom Pyne in 1995 following the amalgamation of City of Cairns Council and Mulgrave Shire. Immediately following the 1995 election, Kevin Byrne was recruited to direct the administrative effort of a giant oil spill cleanup operation in the Kolva Basin, Northern Russia. 146,000 tonnes of oil were recovered in the biggest oil spill clean up on record.
In December 1995 Kevin Byrne was appointed Chief Executive of the Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority. He was a member of the national negotiating team for bilateral air service agreements and was Acting Chairman of the National Airline Commission for two years as well as Deputy Chairman of AIR NIUGINI for eighteen months. His contract with the Papua New Guinea Government concluded in December 1999 and he then returned to Cairns. Kevin Byrne was re-elected as Mayor of Cairns on 25 March 2000 and again in March 2004.
He attained a Master of Arts (Business Administration) with first class honours in 1993. In his current role he is patron to a number of community, cultural and sporting organisations.
Kevin Byrne is married to Amanda and they have a daughter Isabel. They live in Cairns in Redlynch Valley.
