| Honorific-Prefix: | The Honourable |
| Ernest Charles O'Dea | |
| Order: | 69th Lord Mayor of Sydney |
| Term Start: | 1 January 1949 |
| Term End: | 9 December 1952 |
| Deputy: | John James Carroll Jack Byrne |
| Predecessor: | Reg Bartley |
| Successor: | Pat Hills |
| Order1: | Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council |
| Term Start1: | 23 April 1943 |
| Term End1: | 22 April 1967 |
| Birth Date: | 19 February 1889 |
| Birth Place: | Armidale, Colony of New South Wales |
| Death Place: | Gladesville, New South Wales, Australia |
Ernest Charles O'Dea (19 February 1889 – 21 November 1976) was an Australian trade union official, Labor Party politician, Lord Mayor of Sydney and Member of the New South Wales Parliament.
O'Dea was born in Armidale in 1889 and moved to Sydney with his family as a child.
O'Dea entered the retail trade and moved rapidly through the trade union ranks whilst in his twenties. He served as a Sydney Municipal Council Alderman for two periods (1924–1927 and 1930–1965) and was elected Lord Mayor of Sydney in 1948 for four years.[1] [2] He served two twelve-year terms in the New South Wales Legislative Council between 1942 and 1967. He was also a member of Sydney County Council between 1935 and 1959 and its Chairman from 1958 to 1959.[3]
He was an advocate of compulsory unionism and equal pay, and was an opponent of Saturday retail trading and late-night shopping, all major issues in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a vehement anti-communist and fought against communist influence in trade unions and other industrial organisations.
O'Dea died in 1976 at St George Hospital in Sydney, after suffering a cerebral aneurysm in 1966. He was survived by a son from his first marriage and a son and stepdaughter of his second marriage.[4]
O'Dea is remembered by O'Dea Avenue in Zetland[5] and O'Dea Park in Camperdown.