Vale Hunter icon Jeff McCloy 1949 – 2025
Jeff McCloy left the world with a final piece of advice: “Enjoy your life, live with passion, don’t be afraid, have a go and you will live a good life.”
The Hunter business legend died at 1pm on Friday after a 12-month battle with aggressive motor neurone disease (MND). He was 75.
Surrounded by family and friends on the Gold Coast, Mr McCloy ended his life by voluntary assisted dying.
In his final interview with the Newcastle Herald this week, Mr McCloy spoke of his love of the Hunter Region and its people.
“I’ve had a great run, I really have,” he said.
“I am grateful to have shared my life with some wonderful people, but my body has deteriorated to the point where I have now reached the end.”
Even though his body was failing him, the former lord mayor had the future of Newcastle firmly on his mind. He spoke with passion about the state of Newcastle council, the plight of the city’s small businesses and the art gallery redevelopment.
From humble beginnings to a legend
Jeffrey Raymond McCloy was the second eldest of four boys.
His early years in Belmont were spent fishing, surfing, and playing rugby league for Lakes United. The club recently honoured him with a life membership.
Like thousands of other ambitious young people, he headed to the bright lights of Sydney after graduating from Newcastle University with a civil engineering degree.
He found work with Sydney Water and then Lend Lease, where he worked on the MLC Centre.
But by the mid-1970s, he was back home to work with his father, Don, in the family’s commercial building company, DF McCloy.
He formally took the reins a decade later.
In an interview with the Herald in January 2025, Mr McCloy said the construction of the John Hunter Hospital in the late 1980s was his proudest professional achievement.
“It was a special project that was ordered very quickly,” he said.
“It was commercially very successful for us, largely because we ran it out of Newcastle with all Newcastle people.”
The McCloy Group diversified considerably in the 1990s and pivoted towards real estate investment and development with a focus on creating master planned communities.
Mr McCloy’s attention to detail, focus on family living and his passion for public art would lay the foundations of the company’s success in the coming decades.
“What has given me the greatest satisfaction and enjoyment is when you drive into one of these subdivisions and you see kids playing in the parks with their grandparents,”he said.
“You see the houses and the people who live there building a community and supporting the local economy.”
Mr McCloy stood down as company chairman in January this year. It coincided with the relocation of the company’s headquarters from Newcastle to Kurri.
There’s more to life than work
He may have made his name in property and development, but his interests and passions were far more diverse.
In 2006, he embarked on designing and building a superyacht named Seafaris that was designed specifically for luxury charter on the Great Barrier Reef.
The superyacht was built locally at Forgacs shipyard before it was moved to Cairns, the base for his luxury charter business. It took out the top prize in its class at the 2007 World Superyacht Awards in Venice.
Jeff’s other great passions were fishing and cooking. His fishing tales are the stuff of legend, and his culinary skills were equally admirable.
Mr McCloy recently said the times he spent fishing with his brothers were some of his fondest memories.
Giving back
For all his success in business, it was giving back to the community that brought Mr McCloy genuine joy and satisfaction.
Time after time, he supported organisations including the Salvation Army, the Mark Hughes Foundation, Sione Foundation, Jenny’s Place, Build for a Cure (Billy’s Lookout and The Bower) and Redhead Surf Lifesaving Club.
Rather than focusing on himself as his condition deteriorated, Mr McCloy took an active interest in ensuring other MND sufferers were also receiving the care they deserved.
In his final weeks, he donated $1 million to support Macquarie University’s Motor Neurone Disease Research Centre.
“I have tried to do my best, but this disease is something that will be solved one day,” Mr McCloy said last week.
In addition to that, he has also ensured tens of thousands of dollars worth of specialist care equipment will be distributed to those who need it.
Courting controversy
Leadership, courage, generosity, vision and a capacity to give an honest opinion are just some of the qualities that are associated with Jeff McCloy.
In addition to being Newcastle lord mayor between 2012 and 2014, he was also the recipient of the Hunter Business Chamber’s business person of the year award in 2008 and the City of Newcastle Medal in 2009.
But he also accepted that no account of his life would be complete without reference to the infamous 2014 “ICAC bloodbath”.
It followed revelations that he had made $10,000 cash donations to Liberal Party candidates in the 2011 state election campaign.
He told the Herald that he had been motivated by a desire to break the Labor Party’s stranglehold on Newcastle’s political landscape.
“Newcastle had always been taken for granted by the Labor Party, whether it was the federal government, the state government or the councils. I wanted to make a change,” Mr McCloy said.
“I was never charged with anything because I never sought anything or attempted to seek anything. I donated to people I didn’t even know.”
He expressed frustration that ICAC made so much of his donations to Liberal Party candidates, yet had no interest in his long history of contributing to the Labor Party.
“In truth, if I look back over the history, I’ve been asked to donate and have donated more money to Labor than I ever did to the Liberals,” he said.
Mr McCloy was diagnosed with MND in June 2024, although he suspected that he had been experiencing symptoms for several years prior.
Those close to him say he never complained about his lot, rather, he simply got on with life the best he could and accepted the disease’s debilitating effects.
He is survived by his five children, Charlie, Louise, William, Hayley and Blake and his eight grandchildren.
His family has requested privacy.
Instead of sending flowers, his family has requested donations be made to MND NSW, which provides information, support and education for people living with motor neurone disease.
Mr McCloy’s life and legacy will be remembered at a memorial service at Newcastle City Hall in coming weeks.
NEWCASTLE HERALD
27th June 2025
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