Name State Period in Office DOBSON, Henry TAS (Acting) 13 – 28 June 1901 BEST, Robert Wallace VIC 28 June 1901 – 31 December 1903 HIGGS, William Guy QLD 16 March 1904 – 31 December 1906 PEARCE, George Foster WA 21 February 1907 – 13 November 1908 DOBSON, Henry TAS 25 November 1908 – 30 June 1910 O’KEEFE, David John TAS 1 July 1910
Senator Macartney Abbott believed that ‘if you can raise a man’s thoughts you can raise his achievement’. He argued that by raising the thoughts of all nations ‘you can raise the whole level of humanity and place the feet of the world upon that path leading to peace’. Macartney Abbott was born at Murrurundi, New South Wales, on 3 July 1877, and was the
Professor Don Aitkin, AO 1994 – 2017 Mr Scott Bennett 1994 – 2017 Professor Geoffrey Bolton, AO 1994 – 2015 Professor Ann Curthoys 1994 – 2010 Mr Harry Evans 1994 – 2014 Mr Ian Hancock 1994 – 2002 Professor Helen Irving 1998 – 2017 Dr Rosemary Laing 2010 – 2017 Professor Michael Macklin 1994 – 2017 Professor Melanie Nolan 2010 – 2017 Professor John
Kenneth McColl Anderson was born at sea on board a German vessel, the SS Scharnhorst, causing his parents, David More Anderson and Florence, née McWhirter, returning from England, to cable their family that they were bringing home a ‘seagull’. Anderson believed his date of birth to have been 11 October 1909, but the Scharnhorst’s list of the passengers reveals that ‘Child Anderson’ was born
David Andrew’s election as a senator in 1925 points to some degree of dogged determination for it was his sixth attempt to enter Parliament either at the federal or state level. Born in Castlemaine, Victoria, on 10 November 1866, the son of James Sprunt Andrew, a stonemason and later an auctioneer, and his wife, Augusta Arabella, Andrew attended state schools before beginning a fitter’s
Brian Roper Archer was born at Calder, North-West Tasmania on 21 August 1929, the youngest of four children of Clive Anton Archer and Ellen (Nellie) Archer, née Gilmour. Clive Archer, an artillery officer during WW1, had served at Gallipoli and in France and was awarded the Military Cross. Brian grew up at Calder on the family dairy farm, a sixteen hectare soldier settlement block
Terrence (Terry) Gordon Aulich, teacher, politician, writer and lobbyist was born in Bathurst, New South Wales, on 5 October 1945, the eldest of four children of Tasmanians Gordon Joseph (Baron) Aulich, a linesman for the Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Commission (HEC), and his wife Beverley, née Gofton, assistant council clerk. He attended state schools at Scottsdale in north-eastern Tasmania, completing his secondary education at Scottsdale High
Thomas Jerome Kingston Bakhap, tin miner, was born in the Benevolent Asylum, Ballarat, Victoria, on 29 October 1866, the son of Margaret Geneva Hogan, an eighteen-year-old Irish girl residing in Smythesdale. The identity of the father does not appear on Bakhap’s birth certificate, registered in the name Kingston. Subsequent claims by his mother (whose own birthplace is cited variously as Callao, Peru, and Limerick,
‘The story of John Barnes’, said Albert Monk, ACTU president in 1938, ‘is also the history of the Australian Labor movement’. Barnes was born on 17 July 1868 at Hamilton, near Kapunda, South Australia, son of John Thomas Barnes, a labourer from Somerset, England, and his wife Mary, née Cummeford, from County Clare, Ireland. He acquired the basic elements of a primary education and
Henry Newman Barwell, lawyer and premier, was born in Adelaide on 26 February 1877, the son of an Adelaide merchant, Henry Charles Barwell, and his wife Clara, née Brooke. The young Henry was educated at Whinham College and St Peter’s College, going on to Adelaide University, where he graduated in law. Barwell was articled to the firm of Wilson and Toler-Rowley and called to
Most knowledge of Robert John Bell’s early life derives from his highly personal first speech to the Senate in May 1990. He was born in Hobart, Tasmania, on 22 July 1950. His parents were based at Bronte Park, his father employed on hydro-electricity works. Soon the couple separated, Robert remaining with his mother, Frances Ellen. While she qualified as a schoolteacher, the boy lived
Eric James Bessell was a loyal party member and conscientious parliamentarian, whose political career ended when his view of the proper role of the Senate came into conflict with his party’s short-term political aims. He was born in Launceston to Harold Aubrey Bessell, a miner, and Robina Allen, née Dallas, on 6 June 1923. When he was five years old, the family moved from
William Kinsey Bolton, soldier and foundation president of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia, was born in Lostock Gralam, Cheshire, England, on 1 November 1860. The son of John Hammersley Bolton, corn dealer, and Hannah, née Kinsey, Bolton arrived in Australia with his parents in 1868. The family settled in the western district of Victoria, where his father became a storekeeper.
Neville Thomas Bonner, born ‘under a lone palm tree’ on 28 March 1922, at Ukerebagh Island, Tweed Heads, New South Wales, was a stockman and Aboriginal activist who believed it was in the best interest of his people to work for the Aboriginal cause within the existing political institutions of Australian white society. He was the first Indigenous Australian to sit in federal Parliament.
Senator Bill Brown, cabinetmaker and trade union official, was a gracious and popular figure in the Senate, albeit an outspoken and passionate one. He was born William Walter Charles Brown in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick, on 4 December 1920, the second child of William Samuel Brown, a French-polisher, and Eileen, née Ryder. After attending Catholic schools in inner-city Melbourne and studying at night
Cyril St Clair Cameron, army officer and farmer, came from a northern Tasmanian family which produced four parliamentarians. Son of Donald Cameron, MLC, and Mary, née Morrison, he was born on 5 December 1857 at the family property, ‘Fordon’, Nile. Educated in Tasmania and Scotland, Cameron received a second lieutenant’s commission with the Queen’s Royal Lancers in 1879. In 1879–80, he served in Afghanistan,
William Carroll, wheat farmer, was one of a number of rural activists who helped to create the Country Party and who, by entering the federal Parliament in the 1920s and 1930s, changed the Australian political landscape. Born in the Western District of Victoria, at Garvoc, in the Shire of Warrnambool, on 3 January 1872, he was the son of Scottish-born James Carroll, and his
John (Jack) Hartley Chamberlain was born at Manchester, England, on 29 April 1884, the son of John, linen draper, and Alice, née Hartley. The family migrated to Tasmania the next year, arriving in Hobart on the Arawa in February 1886. In 1890 they moved to Latrobe, in the island’s north-west, where John Chamberlain served as a Baptist minister between 1890 and 1895 (he was
Don Chipp’s Senate career almost never happened. Dropped from Malcolm Fraser’s Liberal Party ministry in December 1975, he turned this career blow into an opportunity to fight for the causes in which he believed. The result of Chipp’s personal and political upheaval was the creation of a third force in Australian politics, the Australian Democrats.[1] Donald Leslie Chipp was born in Melbourne on 21
John Coates’ long political career, first as a Member of the House of Representatives for the seat of Denison (1972–75) and then as a Tasmanian senator (1981–96), mirrored the fortunes of federal Labor over three decades. John Coates was born in Melbourne on 23 March 1944, the son of Graeme Coates and his wife Catherine, née Croker. Both his parents were primary school teachers
Harry (Hal) Pateshall Colebatch was born at Wolferlow, Hertfordshire, England, on 29 March 1872, migrating with his parents to South Australia at the age of six. Educated at Goolwa, he left school at fourteen and entered journalism, working from 1889 to 1895 on the Silver Age at Broken Hill. Moving to Western Australia in 1895, he worked briefly on the Golden Age and the
Democratic socialist, union organiser, Labor troubleshooter and administrator, Joseph Silver Collings was born on 11 May 1865 at Brighton, England, the son of free thinker, Joseph Silver Collings, storekeeper, and his wife, Mary Ann, née Dyke, a Quaker. Educated at Brighton Board School, Collings became an apprentice journalist on the Sussex Daily News but emigrated to Brisbane with his parents in 1883 on the
A Allan, Barbara Alexander, Damon Allday, Clare Aungiers, Lynette B Babbage, Despina Bannon, John Bateman, Joel Beauchamp, Clive Bennet, Darryl Bennett, Scott Birman, Wendy Black, David Boadle, Donald Bolton, Geoffrey Bongiorno, Frank Boyce, Peter Boxall, Helen Beau, Jean Breen, Shayne Broinowski, Richard Brown, Judith Browne, Geoffrey Bryant, Tim C Chan, Maureen Chapman, Ralph J. K. Clarke, Patricia Clune, David Connor, John Consandine, Marion Cooke,
John Owen (Jack) Critchley, carpenter and railwayman, was born at Callington, South Australia, on 18 April 1892, the first of three sons of Patrick Critchley, labourer, and Julia, née Burns. Moving to Gumbowie, where his father worked as a packer on the railways, Jack attended school at Sunnybrae, then Petersburg (later Peterborough), leaving at thirteen because he felt his parents were ‘going without to
Gordon Sinclair Davidson, farmer and grazier, and prominent Presbyterian, was born at North Unley, Adelaide, on 17 January 1915. He was the first of two sons of Sinclair Davidson and his wife Elsie Eva, née McNeil, both native-born. Sinclair Davidson farmed Burnfoot, at Angas Plains, near Strathalbyn, South Australia, where many Scots had settled. Davidson, who saw his descent as ‘pure Scots’, was later
John Robert Devereux, union organiser, was born in Gormanston, Tasmania, on 8 February 1946, the second of seven children and only son of Albert Bernard and Floris Merle Devereux. His father was a truck and bus driver and labourer. Educated at St Mary’s Convent School, Gormanston, St Joseph’s School (1954–57) and R. M. Murray High School (1958–61), both at Queenstown, and at the Mt.
Donald Michael Devitt was born on 11 July 1921 in Launceston, Tasmania, the son of William Francis Devitt and Kathleen Mary, née Maloney, both of Irish Catholic background. His father was a policeman who reached the rank of inspector. Devitt was educated at Smithton State High School from 1929 to 1937. In January 1942 he enlisted in the Citizen Military Forces (CMF), transferring to
Henry Dobson, lawyer, premier, and federationist, was born at Hobart on 24 December 1841 to John and Kate, née Willis. Henry grew up in a family of lawyers and politicians. His father, a brother and two half-brothers all practised law, and all but the father gained election to either the Tasmanian or Victorian Parliaments. Dobson was educated from the age of nine at The
As one of two ministers in the first Senate, James George Drake established the largest of the seven new Commonwealth departments—that of Postmaster-General. Born in London on 26 April 1850, son of Edward Drake, a publican, and his wife, Ann Fanny, née Hyde, Drake was educated at King’s College School, London. Eager to see the world, he left London on the Abbey Holmeon 4
John Grant Duncan-Hughes, lawyer and pastoralist, was born into the politically minded Duncan family on 1 September 1882 at ‘Hughes Park’, near Watervale, South Australia. He was the eldest of the four sons of John James (later Sir John) Duncan, pastoralist and politician, and Jean Gordon, née Grant. His brother Walter would become a member of the South Australian Legislative Council from 1918 to
Peter Durack was described by his greatest adversary in the Senate, Gareth Evans, as ‘a man of genuinely Liberal reformist instincts’. Committed to the protection of individual rights through the limitation of executive power, and to preventing the erosion of the rights of the states by federal encroachment, as Attorney-General in the Fraser Government from 1977 to 1983, Durack oversaw a significant period of
Harold Edward Elliott, was born at West Charlton in north-west Victoria on 19 June 1878. He was the fifth of eight children of Thomas Elliott and his wife Helen, née Janverin, who had arrived in Victoria during the gold rushes of the 1850s. Thomas and Helen, both English-born, married at St Michael’s Church of England, Talbot, in 1867 and settled in nearby Cockatoo. After
Ronald Charles (Ron) Elstob was born on 29 November 1924 in Toowoomba, Queensland. His parents, Charles Henry Elstob, a labourer and shearer, and Ann Elstob, née Terbutt, the daughter of a grazier with substantial land holdings, were both from Narrabri, NSW, and had moved to Toowoomba from Augathella, Qld, around the time of Ronald’s birth. Ron, and his older sisters Vera and Rita, attended
Gareth John Evans, the elder child of tram driver Allan Oswald Evans and his wife Phyllis (Phyl), née LeBoeuf, formerly a store manager for Woolworths, was born at Kew, Melbourne, on 5 September 1944. Gareth grew up in Hawthorn, not far from the tram depot where his father worked, before the family moved to Surrey Hills in the 1950s. Evans maintained a life-long connection
It was said of Merv Everett that it was ‘difficult to think of any other Tasmanian who, with such distinction, served both his State and the Commonwealth of Australia in such a variety of fields, judicial, political, administrative and academic’. Mervyn George Everett was born in Sandy Bay, Hobart, on 7 October 1917, the third child of William George Everett, a clerk, and his
Norman Kirkwood Ewing served in three parliaments and stood for a fourth, but is remembered as a judge. Born on 26 December 1870 at Wollongong, New South Wales, he was the tenth child of a Church of England clergyman, Thomas Ewing, and his wife Elizabeth, née Thomson. His eldest brother (Sir) Thomas was a New South Wales MLA (1885–1901) and Commonwealth MP (1901–10), serving
Alexander Finlay, coach painter and union official, was born on 14 November 1887 in South Yarra, Victoria, to Alexander, a painter of Scottish descent, and his wife Florence. When Alexander was still young, the family moved to his mother’s home state of South Australia, to Adelaide. The city would remain his home. He attended Unley Public School until he was twelve (1894–99), took up
For a number of senators, a career in the Commonwealth Parliament has followed one in a state Parliament, but for Senator Alexander Fraser the reverse was the case. A senator for only four months, Fraser went on to a distinguished career in the Victorian Parliament. Alexander John Fraser was born at Fairfield, Melbourne, on 22 August 1892, the son of Scottish‑born parents, Simon Fraser,
Simon Fraser, a successful entrepreneur who became wealthy from dealings in construction, grazing and banking, was a prominent and respected public figure. He was born in Canada, in the town of Pictou, Nova Scotia, on 21 August 1832, the youngest son of a Scottish migrant, William Fraser, a farmer and miller, and his wife Jane, née Fraser. Educated at a local school, Fraser emigrated
Vincent Clare Gair was born in Rockhampton, Queensland, on 25 February 1901. He was the eighth of the ten children of John Alexander Gair, prison warder, and Catherine Mary, née Maguire. John Gair immigrated to Queensland from Scotland in 1885, where he had worked as a publican and hospital orderly. He was a ‘strict disciplinarian’ and ‘a life-long supporter of the Labour Party’, but
Albert (Jupp) Gardiner, carpenter and free trader, has the dubious distinction of holding the record for the longest speech ever made in the Federal Parliament—an all-night ‘stonewaller’ in 1918. Coincidentally, it was the youthful Albert’s resemblance to an English cricketer, one Henry Jupp, alias ‘Young Stonewall’, which led to his being dubbed ‘Jupp’ . Both Henry Jupp and his Australian namesake were broad-shouldered men
William Gerrand Gibson, farmer and storekeeper, was born at Gisborne, Victoria, on 19 May 1869, the son of Scottish‑born parents, David Gibson, a farmer, and his wife Grace, née Gerrand. Gibson was educated locally, then farmed with his father before setting up on his own as a storekeeper at Romsey and Lancefield. Becoming a successful businessman, Gibson turned his attention to public affairs, serving
Henry Thomas Givens, cane-cutter, miner, journalist and President of the Senate for thirteen years, arrived in Australia in 1882. He was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, on 12 June 1864,the son of a farmer, Robert Givens, and his wife, Mary Ann, née White. Once in the Antipodes, young Thomas travelled north to Queensland, where he worked on the cane fields. For a period, he
Thomas William (Bill) Glasgow was born on 6 June 1876, at ‘Upton Bank’, Tiaro, on the Mary River, inland from Maryborough in Queensland. His father, Samuel, had come from Armagh, in Northern Ireland to the four-year-old colony in 1863. Samuel had married in 1864, but his first wife died in 1867, leaving him to bring up an infant daughter, Elizabeth. Gold was discovered at
Charles William Grant, businessman, was born on 24 April 1878, at Hobart, elder son of Charles Henry Grant, engineer, businessman and MLC, and Jane, née Nicholls. Educated in Hobart at The Hutchins School, Grant worked on various mainland sheep stations for a few years, returning to Hobart to commence a business career in 1901. In time he became a partner in the dairy produce
Described as ‘one of the men who gave fire and colour to the Labor tradition’, Donald MacLennan Grant was born at Inverness, Scotland, on 26 February 1888, son of Donald Grant, an insurance agent, and his wife Mary, née McLennan.[1] He was educated in Inverness, left school at twelve and was later apprenticed as a dental mechanic. Grant became involved in socialist politics at
James Guy’s Protestant theology and his place in a labour movement influenced by Tasmanian social democracy (as opposed to the more radical labourism of the Australian mainland) must be taken into account in assessing the events of his political career. Guy was born in Launceston, Tasmania, on 13 November 1860, the eldest of the twelve children of Andrew, storeman, and Margaret, née Polock. He
James Allan Guy, butcher, union official and parliamentarian for thirty years, was born at Launceston on 30 November 1890, to James Guy, blacksmith and politician, and Margaret, née McElwee, sister of G. J. McElwee, MLC. Father and son would have much in common. Both were active in the ALP, became Tasmanian MHAs and represented Tasmania in the Senate. The father played a controversial role in the
Steele Hall is the only Australian to serve as premier of a state as well as the member of three legislatures. His parliamentary career exceeded thirty-three years; for over twenty of those years he sat on opposition or cross-benches. Raymond Steele Hall was born in Balaklava, South Australia, on 30 November 1928, to Sidney, a farmer, and Florence, née Fisher. He attended Owen Primary
John Blyth Hayes, farmer, and Premier of Tasmania from 1922 to 1923, was born on 21 April 1868, at Bridgewater, Tasmania, son of Joshua John Hayes, farmer, and Elizabeth, née Blyth. He was the grandson of John Hayes, MHA, and both cousin and brother-in-law of E. F. B. Blyth, MHA, who would later serve in his ministry. John Blyth was educated by his mother,
The career of W. G. Higgs, printer and journalist, was characterised by a determination to form his own beliefs and to remain constant to them. His idealism and independence, which helped to formulate the earliest policies of the Labor Party, saw him often in conflict with the Party in later years. William Guy Higgs was born on 18 January 1862 at Wingham, a small
Donald Scott Jessop was born at Unley Park, South Australia, on 21 June 1927 to Lindsay Newton Rennie Jessop and his wife Margaret Ada, née Scott. The first of three sons, Donald attended Mitcham Primary School and Unley High School. Colour blindness prevented him from pursuing studies in his chosen fields, medicine or pharmacy. On the advice of the school’s vocational officer, Jessop decided
John Thomas (Jack) Kane, militant anti-communist and founder of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), was born on 23 July 1908 in the small town of Burraga in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales. He was the son of Cornelius Kane, an engine-driver, born in Melbourne, and Kate, née Williams. In 1911 the family moved to Lithgow. Jack attended St Patrick’s School, leaving at
Frederick Carl Katz was born in Adelaide on 21 May 1877, the son of Carl August, a goldsmith and jeweller, and Jane, née Wiltshire. Carl (or Charles, as he became known) was a French-born German who arrived in Adelaide on board the Northern Monarch in 1876. Fred’s family moved to Victoria in the late 1880s, and settled in Melbourne. In 1899 Fred was working
John Henry Keating’s parting wish as he left the Federal Parliament after twenty-two years was that the Senate would ‘fulfil the functions which the founders of the Constitution fondly believed it would fulfil when they gave it its Constitution’.[1] At twenty-nine, Keating had been the youngest member of the first Commonwealth Parliament. According to Punch, in 1906 he was a ‘tall, plump, youthful looking
Keith Alexander Laught, ‘ambassador for Mount Gambier’, was born on 2 January 1907 at Mitcham, Adelaide. He was the elder of two surviving sons born to Alexander Veitch Laught, a telegraph clerk, and his wife Johanne Christiane née Wittber, a potter whose work is held in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. One of his uncles was Bill (Carl) Wittber, the aviation pioneer, and Keith’s
Alexander Greig Ellis Lawrie (known as Ellis) was born at Lorn, near Maitland, New South Wales, on 19 June 1907, the son of Alexander Greig Lawrie, a grazier, and his wife Ilma, née Norrie. His great-grandparents, James and Jean Lawrie, had emigrated from Dunfermline, Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1850, under the aegis of Reverend J. D. Lang. Establishing a tobacco farm and manufactory at Halton
Alexander Elliot Davidson Lillico, who served with distinction at all three levels of government for almost forty years, was a forceful advocate for rural Tasmania, particularly for the North-West. He was born into a farming family of Scottish descent, at Ulverstone, Tasmania, on 5 September 1905, the son of Alexander Lillico (later Sir) and Frances Emma, née Vertigan. The Lillico family had arrived in
James Joseph (Big Jim) Long, miner, was born at Hamilton-on-Forth, on Tasmania’s north-west coast, in 1870, the son of Patrick, a farmer, and Maria, née Hannan. James was educated to primary level and at an early age joined those who sought their fortunes on the burgeoning west coast mine fields, first as prospector and later as mine employee. While on the coast, Long was
John Valentine MacDonald, journalist, was born on 14 February 1880 in Opotiki, New Zealand. He was the son of Norman, policeman and farmer, and Alice, née Davis, and grandson, on the paternal side, of John, a pioneer of the Victorian pastoral industry. MacDonald attended briefly state schools in New Zealand and New South Wales. From the age of eight he accompanied his nomadic father and
Editor to state politician, Labor functionary to senator, William John Ryott Maughan was born on 8 January 1863 at Whitechapel, London, the son of the Rev. Joseph Maughan and Selina Gedge, née Pace. Maughan’s father, who had been ordained as an Anglican clergyman in 1860, was associate secretary of the Colonial and Continental Church Society, and author of Pastoral Addresses.By 1867, he was vicar
A stalwart of the Queensland division of the Australian (later National) Country Party, Charles Ronald (Ron) Maunsell, pilot, earthmoving contractor, grazier and fruit grower, came from pioneering stock, his great-grandparents, Samuel and Phoebe Maunsell, having immigrated to Australia from Ballybrood, County Limerick, in 1858. The only child of Charles George Maunsell and Evelyn Violet, née Evans, he was born in Cairns on 8 May
Philip Albert Martin McBride, pastoralist and businessman, spent seven years as a senator and overall eighteen as a member of the House of Representatives. He was influential in both houses, but the highpoint of his career centred on his ministerial appointments during the Cold War. McBride was born on 18 June 1892, at Kooringa, Burra, South Australia, the first child of Albert James McBride,
Douglas McClelland was born on 5 August 1926, in Wentworthville, NSW, the son of Alfred McClelland, union organiser and farmer, and his wife Gertrude Amy, née Cooksley. Alfred was a NSW Labor MLA for the seats of Northern Tablelands (1920–27) and Dubbo (1930–32). Douglas was educated at Wentworthville Public School, Parramatta High School and the Metropolitan Business College, Parramatta. After leaving school he worked
