Dan Gleeson

Daniel Gleeson OBE ( - ), a politician of North Queensland Australia, was the first Mayor of the Former City of Thuringowa.

Personal Mr Gleeson was the fourth child of three pioneering families who came to North Queensland in the late 1800s. He left school and started working for Northern Cars and Tractors before he turned 14. Northern Cars and Tractors did not survive the Great Depression and Mr Gleeson worked in wood-cutting, labouring, cane-cutting and cooking in the Johnstone Shire and in Townsville and Thuringowa. During World War II he was a member of the Civil Construction Corps was helped in the construction of runways in Cairns, Townsville and Thuringowa. they had four children together. Dan died after a long illness in January, 1994.

After his passing the "Dan Gleeson Memorial Gardens" were dedicated to the memory of Gleeson by his successor Mayor Les Tyrell. His chairmanship and mayoralty of Thuringowa has been described as colourful but well-connected (within the State Government), he has also been described as 'a political chameleon' for having been previously a member of the Labor Party.