Daniel James Curtin was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n politician. Born in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, he was educated at a Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 primary school before becoming a boilermaker

Boilermaker

A boilermaker is a trained craftsman who produces steel fabrications from plates and sections. The name originated from craftsmen who would fabricate boilers, but they may work on projects as diverse as bridges to blast furnaces to the construction of mining equipment.-Boilermaking:Many...

 and organiser of the Boilermakers' Society. In 1949, he was preselected by the Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 to contest the safe Labor seat of Watson

Division of Watson (1934-69)

The Division of Watson was an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It was located in the inner southern suburbs of Sydney, and originally included the suburbs of Coogee, Kensington and Maroubra...

, displacing the sitting member, Max Falstein, who contested the seat as an independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

. Curtin won the seat, which he held until 1955, when he transferred to the seat of Kingsford-Smith

Division of Kingsford Smith

The Division of Kingsford Smith is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It is located in the south-eastern suburbs of Sydney, on the north shore of Botany Bay, and the coast of the Tasman Sea...

. He held Kingsford-Smith until 1969, when he retired from politics. Curtin died on his birthday in 1980.