Fr T.J. Linane, From Abel to Zundolovich, Vol. 2: Biographies of Priests on the Australian Scene up to 1900, 1980, p 9:

Byrne, William, Irish
One of the Many from Clonaulty, Tipperary
Apart from what is said in the title above we know nothing further of origin and early education. Seminary studies were completed at Thurles. Ordination taking place on 14.6.1900 at Thurles Cathedral at the hand of the Bishop of Cloyne, Dr. Browne. Directory tracings show: Bundaberg (1902), Toowoomba (1905) (1907), Caboolture (1908) (1909), Boonah (1915). South Brisbane or Kangaroo Point is the last tracing (1921) (1925). The death date given on his tomb in the Nudgee Cemetery, where most Brisbane priests are buried, is 9.9.1939.
(Footprints, Vol. 1, No. 11)

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Prayer Calendar: Deceased Priests who have ministered the Catholic Faith throughout Toowoomba and districts, 1864–2025, Compiled by Annie Carrett, Diocesan Archivist, 2001, Updated by Gabrielle Saide, Diocesan Archivist, 2023:
Rev William Byrne, died 9 Sep 1939

William Byrne (or Willie) was born in Ireland, at Clonoulty, Tipperary, on 9th May 1873. Seminary studies were completed at Thurles. Ordination took place on 14th June 1900 at Thurles Cathedral, at the hand of the Bishop of Cloyne. He arrived in Australia in the latter part of 1900. As a priest of the Brisbane Archdiocese, he served in the following places: Bundaberg (1902); Toowoomba (1905, 1907); Roma (1911); Caboolture; Boonah; South Brisbane and Kangaroo Point. About a decade before his death, illness forced a retirement from active ministry. He died aged 66 and is buried in Nudgee Cemetery.
(Ref. Linane B160)

Reproduced by permission of Bishop Ken Howell.

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Denis M. Long, Pioneer and Early Priests, Archdiocese of Brisbane, Deceased or retired by 1929, 2021, p 197:
Fr William Byrne

Fr William Byrne was alive in 1928 but did not attend that year's priests' retreat. Owing to a severe illness he had been inactive for some years prior to that time.

William Byrne was born at Clonoulty in co Tipperary, Ireland on 3 March 1873. He studied for the priesthood at St Patrick's College in Thurles and was ordained for the Archdiocese of Brisbane in the Thurles Cathedral by the bishop of Cloyne on 18 June 1900.(1)

Fr Byrne arrived in Brisbane late in 1900 and was appointed to Bundaberg.(2) He was in Toowoomba by 1914. Pugh's Almanac lists him in Bundaberg from 1905 until 1909. Fr Tom Linane has Fr Byrne in Caboolture in 1908 and 1909.(3) The centenary booklet for that parish published in 1994 makes no mention of him as a priest who served in that parish.(4) He served in Beaudesert for a short time from October 1909 until May 1910.(5) Toowoomba records state that he was in Roma in 1911.(6) Some records have him in Boonah in 1911. He was certainly registered as being there in 1914 where he remained until 1923.

His next move was to South Brisbane and Kangaroo Point. His name does not appear in Pugh's Almanac from 1925. This fact confirms a report that because of illness he retired from active ministry some 10 years before his death.

Some years before his death, Fr Byrne was admitted to Willowburn Psychiatric Hospital in Toowoomba suffering from exhaustion and dementia. Fr James Madden, the administrator of St Patrick's cathedral in Toowoomba at the time, visited Fr Byrne regularly. He was the person to register Fr Byrne's death on 9 August 1939. The cause of death was heart failure due to influenza and pneumonia.(7) Fr Byrne was sixty-six years of age.

The funeral took place following a Requiem Mass in St Stephen's Cathedral on 10 August. Archbishop Duhig presided at the Solemn Requiem Mass celebrated by Very Rev Dr English who was then administrator of the cathedral. Archbishop Duhig said:

It is more than a decade of years since Father Byrne has been laid aside by illness. …

It would be a great consolation to his family in Ireland, to know that the celebrant of the Mass had come from that land, and was well acquainted with his family. …

Father Willie Byrne … has left behind him very dear memories of his cheerfulness, his kindly and generous nature, and his young enthusiasm when he went to work on the mission.

His grace spoke of the kindness the late Father Byrne had received from the Bishops of Toowoomba, the late bishop Byrne and the present bishop Roper, and the clergy of that diocese.(8)

The archbishop officiated at Fr Byrne's burial in the priests' old section of Nudgee Catholic cemetery. There is an error on the headstone for it records his death as 9 September.(9)

Footnotes
1. Prayer Calendar, deceased priests who have ministered the Catholic Faith throughout Toowoomba and districts, 1864-2007.
2. Pugh's Almanac, 1901 to 1903.
3. Thomas Linane, "From Abel to Zundolovich", in Footprints, Jul 1973, vol. 1. no. 11. p. 28.
4. Caboolture Catholic Parish Centenary 1894-1994.
5. Rev Denis O'Keeffe, Parish of Logan and Albert, in Beaudesert Times, 6 Oct 1933, p. 2. on the
6. Prayer Calendar, deceased priests who have ministered the Catholic Faith throughout Toowoomba and districts, 1864-2007.
7. Telegraph, 9 Aug 1939, p. 15. And Queensland Death certificate 1939/C3955.
8. Advocate, Brisbane, 12 Aug 1939, p. -.
9. Nudgee Cemetery Records.

Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Long.