Tributes flow for 'visionary' former Shellharbour mayor, Bob Harrison

To his daughters he was their “hero”, to his friends he was “principled” and “honest”, and to the people of his beloved community, he was “a visionary“ and “a doer who never stopped”.

It was standing room only for the funeral service on Tuesday of former Shellharbour mayor, Bob Harrison OAM, who those gathered heard “always took pride in being a working-class mayor who lived in a housing commission home”.

Born in Goulburn in 1934, Bob was the youngest of three children.

Celebrant Paul Young said Bob didn’t enjoy school, “But he was a bookworm and so he was pretty much self-taught.”

Aged 19, Bob moved to the Illawarra, firstly to work at the steelworks. Two years later, in 1955, he became a waterside worker and an active member of the trade union movement.

As a strapping young man who liked to keep fit, Bob took to wrestling and boxing. He fought in the ring under the title, ‘BoBo Harrison’.

He was still working as a wharfie when he was elected to Shellharbour Council in 1971, and three years later he served his first term as mayor.

Former Shellharbour Council director, Arthur Webster, recalled how Bob would turn up at the council chambers for early morning meetings on his way home from night shift “still wearing his work boots, shorts and his trademark blue singlet".

"It looks like no one told Bob about our office dress code,” Arthur mused.

The power couple

There was only ever one true love in Bob’s life. After marrying in Hobart in 1963, he and Ann made a formidable team, both at home raising two girls and in the community, where together they fought side by side to improve the lives of those who lived in the Shellharbour Municipality as it was then.

On Council, they were the longest-serving husband and wife team in NSW local government. In 1973, Ann was the first woman elected to Shellharbour Council.

Together, the power couple contributed to the growth of Shellharbour for 35 years.

An amazing legacy

“He was a doer and he never stopped,” Paul Young told the nearly 200 mourners. “A visionary who left his fingerprints over the entire area.”

“There isn‘t one person in this municipality that isn’t better off because of the contribution of Bob Harrison. It’s an amazing legacy that he leaves behind for the generations to come.”

Arthur Webster recounted the sweeping changes Bob introduced when he took on the mayoral role at Shellharbour.

“Bob was highly motivated and determined to lift the living standards of the people who lived here. There were no kerbs and gutters and no sewerage. It was a very unhealthy place to live.

“Bob used to describe our local roads as goat tracks, and he wasn’t far off the mark.”

Bob recognised that Shellharbour had no strategic plan for the future and on his initiative a town planning department was created for the first time.

“A plan was created and Bob drove that plan,” Arthur said. “He drove the plan for a city centre and Shellharbour Square was created. The plan included the retention of valuable green space and we now have the wonderful Blackbutt Forest.

“Areas that were cow pastures became new housing estates in accordance with the grand plan. Today, when you look back, it was a wonderful decision and it remains a wonderful plan.

“You could see in his later years how proud he was about how the city had developed and that he’d had played such a big part in it.”

Elected to parliament

Bob’s influence spread well beyond the Illawarra when, in 1986, while still serving as Shellharbour’s mayor, he was elected to the state seat of Kiama.

Richard Amery, a Labor colleague and former minister, befriended the new member, who he described as “tough, passionate and intolerant to those who didn’t agree with his view.

“He was also a passionate lover of animals, and he fought in parliament for the prevention of cruelty to animals.”

Every speaker referred to the remarkable menagerie of animals that Bob accumulated, and treated just like family in the Harrison’s big suburban backyard in Albion Park.

That collection of kangaroos, chickens, emus, dingoes, ducks and deer became quite the talking point. Local families stopped by to feed the animals through the fence and school buses regularly pulled over so the kids could see if there had been any new additions to the fold. The local kids even gave him the nickname ‘Old McDonald’.

Marianne Saliba, who followed Bob both as Shellharbour’s mayor and as a state parliamentarian, recounted his horror when it was suggested that kangaroo would be added to the menu at the member’s dining room at Parliament House.

“He fought against it, saying you can’t eat one of the two animals on our coat of arm. Bob said he’d never set foot in the dining room again if they left it on the menu. He was a man of principle. They left kangaroo on and he never went into that dining room again.”

Fixing the 'goat tracks'

Bob even used his beloved animals to make a powerful political point.

“He regularly described the local roads as a goat track and he took a goat, invited the media and walked it up Lake Entrance Road. That road was state government funded and he made the point that Shellharbour’s roads needed more money,” Marianne said.

“If anyone ever asks me who was the best ever mayor of Shellharbour, it was Bob.”

Bill Carey, a close friend of Bob Harrison for 60 years and his campaign director when Bob ran for state parliament, described the former mayor as “uncompromising on principle, honest, and his desire was to make the world a better place”.

“At election time Bob always got an enormous vote,” Bill said. He also said there were a few doubters.

“There was a small minority who said the Shellharbour Marina would be a bloody disaster. Go and look at it today. It’s just another of Bob’s legacies.”

In 1983, Bob Harrison led a small council delegation to New Zealand on a fact-finding tour to learn about the benefits of large marina developments. Your author was privileged to have covered that trip for The Lake Times. All those years ago, Bob knew a world-class marina at Shellharbour would be a game-changer for his community.

Bill and Bob worked together on the waterfront for many years and Bill recalled Bob’s standard early morning breakfast on day shift was two Mac pies. “It’s a wonder he lived so long, isn't it.”

The funeral service heard of Bob’s love of vintage cars and music. He enjoyed playing the guitar, banjo, ukulele and harmonica, and he enjoyed a singalong.

A family man

Bob’s grandchildren, Jenna and Ryan, spoke of the priority that Bob put on family, no matter how busy he was with serving his community. “I love you, Granddad, and thanks for raising us the way you did,” Ryan said.

Bob was awarded an Order of Australia in 2005, for service to state and local government. He was a life member of the Maritime Union of Australia, the South Coast Labour Council and the Australian Labor Party.

In 2013, Shellharbour City Centre’s five-hectare park was renamed Harrison Park in honour of Bob and Ann’s contribution to the growth of Shellharbour over all those decades.

Bob died on 2 April 2026, aged 91. He was the loving husband of Ann for 62 years before her passing in 2023.

He was the loved father and father-in-law of Jane and Dick, Lynda and Brett; grandfather of Kirk, Aleisha, Ryan, Luke, Jenna, Rhys and Darcy; and great grandad of Chelsea, Tatum and Oaklen.