Bridge, Ernie (1936-2013), was an Australian Aboriginal leader and politician. He was the first Indigenous (native) person to be elected to the Parliament of Western Australia. He served as a minister of the Labor Party government in Western Australia from 1986 to 1993. He was the first Aboriginal person to become a government minister. He became known for his support for a plan to pipe water from the Ord River scheme to the southwestern part of the state.
Ernest Francis Bridge was born on Dec. 15, 1936, at Halls Creek in Western Australia. His father was a member of a pioneer family of pastoralists in the Kimberley district. His mother was partly of Aboriginal descent. He was educated in Derby, Western Australia, and later took correspondence courses. He then worked as a drover and shopkeeper, and operated an open-air movie theater. In 1972, he became a member of the Aboriginal Lands Trust of Western Australia. He was elected to the state Parliament in 1980 as a member of the Labor Party. That same year, he was established as a popular singer of Australian bush ballads. Bush is the term Australians use for the remote countryside. Bridge resigned from the Labor Party in 1996 but was reelected to Parliament that year as an independent. He retired from Parliament in 2001.
At the end of his life, Bridge suffered from mesothelioma and other diseases related to the inhalation of the mineral asbestos. He claimed he had contracted the illnesses after being exposed to asbestos while working as a member of Parliament and government minister overseeing mine closures in the late 1980’s. In 2012, Bridge was named a Member of the Order of Australia for his service to the Indigenous community, particularly through support for health management programs, and to the Parliament of Western Australia. The Order of Australia is Australia’s highest award for service to the country or to humanity. Bridge died in Perth on March 31, 2013.
