Farewell to a titan: a far from ordinary funeral for extraordinary man, Jeff McCloy
IT was no ordinary funeral, but Jeffrey Raymond McCloy was no ordinary man.
A scathing indictment was levelled at ICAC, Allan ‘Robbo’ Robinson was presented with a giant cheque for $1, and there were more laughs and profanity than tears.
The Hunter business titan was remembered at Newcastle City Hall on Tuesday at a celebration of life almost as big and bold as Mr McCloy was.
At the heart of it all was a deep admiration for a complex character with an indomitable spirit, who built an incredible life and much of Newcastle from the ground up.
His business partner, friend and McCloy Group company chair, Paul Broad, remembered him as a bloke who connected with people “beyond belief”.
“In his dying days, he [Jeff] was making plenty of noise,” Mr Broad said.
“Jeff was a loyal friend, loyal to a fault, generous to a fault.
“But you crossed him; he was a prick. He would fight you with every bone in his body, no matter who it was, or how you went about it.”
Mr McCloy passed away on his own terms on June 27, following a 12-month battle and complications with motor neurone disease.
He chose to die at age 75 by voluntary assisted dying, surrounded by family and friends on the Gold Coast.
It gave him the time to settle his affairs, make clear his vision for Newcastle’s future to his successors, say his goodbyes and prepare every aspect of his memorial program, right down to the food and drinks.
Mr McCloy is survived by his five children, Charlie, Louise, William, Hayley and Blake, and his eight grandchildren.
City Hall was packed to the rafters for the service, attended by civic dignitaries, fellow big industry players, loved ones, his surf club mates and old rugby boys who were his “closest allies in every respect”.
“He would have been humbled to see so many people show up to wish him well and say goodbye,” Mr Broad said.
“He shouldn’t be, you know when he stood for lord mayor, he got 43 per cent of the primary vote.”
Mr McCloy was the second eldest of four boys.
Growing up in Belmont, he spent his early years fishing, surfing and playing rugby league for Lakes United, where he has been honoured with a life membership.
Once graduated from the University of Newcastle, he headed to Sydney with a civil engineering degree in hand and found work with Sydney Water and later Lend Lease.
In the mid-1970s, he returned home to work with his father, Don, in the family’s commercial building company, DF McCloy.
His brother, Graham, spoke of his love of fishing, surfing, footy and shooting and a bond between all four brothers that only strengthened in the last decade.
Mr McCloy loved cooking, and his mate and fellow former councillor, Mr Robinson, loved eating his creations just as much.
He remembered his friend as an “inspiring human being”.
“Jeff was the most honest, sharp-minded man I’ve ever met in my life, the smartest bloke in the chamber,” he said.
“It’s the biggest loss; he was the most generous man in the world; he gave so much time to Newcastle; he loved Newcastle.
“He loved fishing and that was his passion, but he never rested. He never rested.”
In his final weeks, Mr McCloy donated $1 million to support Macquarie University’s Motor Neurone Disease Research Centre, one of many organisations he gave generously to throughout his life.
At his funeral, attendees were encouraged to make a donation of their own.
Mr McCloy had a life of great success, driven by his attention to detail, his focus on family living and his vision.
The construction of the $102 million John Hunter Hospital in the late 1980s was his proudest professional achievement.
Mr McCloy was elected as Newcastle lord mayor between 2012 and 2014. He was the recipient of the Hunter Business Chamber’s Business Person of the Year Award in 2008 and the City of Newcastle Medal in 2009.
His stint as lord mayor came to an end in 2014 due to revelations made during ICAC’s Operation Spicer hearings relating to $10,000 in cash donations he made to Liberal Party candidates in the 2011 state election campaign.
It was Mr McCloy’s run-in with ICAC that led him to barrister Margaret Cunneen SC, who spoke at Tuesday’s service.
“With ICAC, I started to see when they came after my family, that they had lost their way, that the corruption commission wasn’t reading its own statute properly and was going after scalps for the sake of the press and pandering to that,” she said.
“They’d lost their way in corruption in government, and they were going after people that they shouldn’t be.
“Jeff and his family, like mine and many fine people here today, were persecuted during a rogue and now utterly discredited era of the corruption agency, and it’s not just me who says it.”
Mr McCloy told the Newcastle Herald in June that he had been motivated by a desire to break the Labor Party’s stranglehold on Newcastle’s political landscape.
Even at the end, he spoke passionately about the state of Newcastle council, issues facing small businesses and the Newcastle Art Gallery redevelopment.
At the funeral, a pre-recorded video played of Mr McCloy reading poems Do It Anyway by Mother Teresa and If by Rudyard Kipling.
It was a reminder, he said, not to take life “too seriously”.
“What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight,” he said.
“Build anyway …
“Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.
“Give the best you’ve got anyway.”
NEWCASTLE HERALD
8 July 2025
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