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Ian M MacFarlane (1923 - 2008)

Sir Ian M [uncertain] MacFarlane [uncertain] aka McFarlane [uncertain]
Born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australiamap
Ancestors ancestors
[sibling(s) unknown]
[spouse(s) unknown]
[children unknown]
Died at age 84 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australiamap
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Profile last modified | Created 4 Nov 2018
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Biography

Sir Ian was born Ian Macfarlane on the 25th of December, 1923 at Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, the son of Stuart MacFarlane and Mary McDermott.[1][citation needed]

At 34, on the 27th of August, 1928, permanent address: East 87 Street, New York, New York, he left Honolulu, Hawaii, by air.[2]

At 32, on the 10th of November, 1956, he married in San Francisco, California, United States, and had 3 children.[3][4]

At 37, on the 10th of June, 1961, he arrived in New York, New York, United States, by BOAC airline.[5]

At 84, he died on the 22nd of October, 2008, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.[4]


Obituary.Ian McFarlane, 1923-2008 AS A YOUNG man unsure of his career path, Ian McFarlane asked his professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for advice about a job offer. When the professor offered to swap jobs with him, the Australian knew he was on the right path. McFarlane accepted the job, as a junior associate with the investment banker Morgan Stanley & Co in New York and went on to instigate the revolutionary Queensland oil shale projects at the Rundle and then Stuart deposits near Gladstone, Queensland. Sir Ian McFarlane, who has died of cancer at his home in Sydney at 84, was born in Sydney to Mary and Stuart McFarlane but grew up in Canberra, where his father was a senior treasury official and later secretary to the Treasury Department (1938-48). His father's postings around Australia and overseas led to education at Melbourne Grammar and Harrow, England. McFarlane enrolled in an engineering-science degree at Sydney University but, when World War II began, joined the Australian Navy volunteer reserve and worked as a research officer in the development of a homing torpedo with the US Seventh Fleet. He completed his degree after the war before moving to the United States for a master of science degree at MIT. He added a secondary course in financial investment/economics. Realising that decision-makers often came from the banking side of business, he took a summer internship with Morgan Stanley, which led to the job offer. His work there exposed him to big resources projects in North America. In 1956, he married Ann Shaw; they later had two daughters and a son. Returning to Sydney in 1959, he joined broking firm Ord Minnett T.J. Thompson & Partners; then, in 1964, he became a director of Consolidated Rutile and deputy chairman of Magellan Petroleum Australia, which had just participated in the Mereenie oil discovery in central Australia. This was followed in 1965 by the discovery of the nearby Palm Valley gas field. Seeking markets for Palm Valley gas, in 1968 McFarlane established Southern Pacific Petroleum and Central Pacific Minerals to explore separately for petroleum and minerals. The two companies made small discoveries but struggled to reach a commercial threshold. During the OPEC oil price shock of 1973, he began to think about oil shale as an alternative to Middle Eastern oil. His days at Morgan Stanley and later with Consolidated Rutile's Stradbroke Island mineral sands deposit had taught him that the best economics would result from a high-grade deposit that could be mined by open cut and was close to infrastructure including port facilities. These criteria were met in the shallow basins along the Queensland coast. The best of these was a deposit named Rundle, and when SPP and CPM joined forces to appraise them they became known as the "Rundle Twins". By 1980 the two companies had sufficient data to attract farm-in bids and newspaper headlines screamed that Exxon's subsidiary, Esso Australia, had become a 50 per cent partner and operator to develop the Rundle deposit. For various economic and technical reasons, and to McFarlane's chagrin, the project dragged into the mid-1980s without development and finally petered out altogether. McFarlane tried again, with the nearby Stuart deposit. A new partner, Canadian company Suncor, was brought in and a unique pilot plant was established. Teething problems continued to dog the project and Suncor withdrew in 2001. McFarlane's companies struggled on alone in the early 2000s, producing more than a million barrels of shale oil and refined oil. However, critics including Greenpeace maintained that greenhouse gas emissions and odors from the plant were unacceptable. Costs to fix these problems rose to breaking point and eventually receivers were called in, resulting in the sale of SPP/CPM assets in February 2004. McFarlane never lost his dynamism and never stopped believing in the worth of the oil shale deposits for Australia. McFarlane's humanitarian side was evident in his contributions to medical research and scholarships, and donations to charitable organizations and community projects, including the Royal Brisbane Hospital Research Foundation and the Great Barrier Reef Research Foundation. He was made a knight bachelor in 1984 for services to business and community. Ian McFarlane is survived by his wife, Ann, his daughters Jennifer and Sharon, his son, John, and six grandchildren.
[4]

Sources

  1. "Australia, World War II Military Service Records, 1939-1945" Ian McFarlane Birth Date 25 Dec 1923 Birth Place Sydney New South Wales Year range 1939 - 1948 Enlistment Place Sydney Father Stuart McFarlane Series Description A6769: RAN, Navy Officers Household Members
  2. "Honolulu, Hawaii, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1900-1959" Ian McFarlane Departure Age 35 Birth Year 1923 Birth Place Sydney Port of Departure Honolulu, Hawaii Departure Date 27 Aug 1958 Race Australian Last Residence New York NameAge NameIan McFarlane NameStuart McFarlane
  3. "California, Marriage Index, 1949-1959" Ian McFarlane Gender Male Estimated Birth Year abt 1924 Age 32 Marriage Date 10 Nov 1956 Marriage Place San Francisco, California, USA Spouse Ann W Shaw Spouse Age 24 Household Members NameAge NameAnn W Shaw NameIan McFarlane
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 [Sydney Morning Herald 30 Oct 2008]
  5. "New York State, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1917-1967" Ian M McFarlane Nationality Australian Arrival Age 37 Birth Date 25 Dec 1923 Birth Place Sydney Arrival Date 10 Jun 1961 Arrival Place New York, New York, USA Airline BOAC Flight Number 691/112 Household Members NameAge NameIan M McFarlane NameRobin L Ericson




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