George SWINBURNE
Member for East Yarra Province (June – September 1928)
Ministerialist, Independent Liberal, Liberal Party, Nationalist Party
MLA for Hawthorn (October 1902 – July 1913)
Engineer. Born 3 February 1861, Paradise near Newcastle, England. Son of Mark William (a brass founder and engineer) and Jane Coates. Married 17 February 1890 to Ethel Hamer; four daughters. Deceased 4 September 1928
Educated at Royal Grammar School, Newcastle and night school, engineering; apprenticed to J. Williamson and Co., chemical merchants 1874, clerk 1880-82; joined gas and mechanical engineering firm of uncle John Coates at London, partner from 1885; followed uncle to Melbourne 1886; manager Melbourne Hydraulic Power Co. 1887-97, managing director 1898-1911, chairman Australasian board 1911-13; director Metropolitan Gas Co. 1898-1911, Broken Hill Water Supply Co. 1898-1913, Spectator Publishing Co., Johns & Waygood 1891-1905, chairman 1908-13; Canning Jarrah Timber Co., National Mutual Life Assurance Society Ltd 1910-13, 1924-28, chairman 1928, Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Co. 1913, chairman 1918-28, Electrolytic Zinc Co.; member Institute of Mechanical Engineering 1897, Institute of Civil Engineers 1914; member Inter-State Commission 1913-17, CSIR 1916-20; chairman of committee controlling capital issue 1915-17, Board of Business Administration, Defence Department 1917-19; member Military Board 1919-20, Note Issue Board 1920-22; Victorian SEC commissioner 1919-25; member Melbourne University Council 1908-13, 1918-23, Council of Public Instruction; trust committee AIF Canteen Funds, Public Library and National Gallery 1910-28, president 1928; founder of Eastern Suburbs (later Swinburne) Technical College, president 1908-28; successfully sued Age for libel 1909; Australian delegate to Chamber of Commerce conference, London 1912 and League of Nations, Geneva 1925; owned significant European art collection; Freemason; active Methodist
Hawthorn city councillor 1898-1904, mayor 1902-03.
Ministerialist, Independent Liberal 1908, Liberal Party, Nationalist Party; Liberal Party election agent, London 1886.
MLA for Hawthorn October 1902-July 1913 (resigned), MLC for East Yarra Province June-September 1928 (deceased); contested Hawthorn (Legislative Assembly) 1900 and Senate 1922. Minister of Water Supply April 1904-October 1908 (resigned over land tax bill), Minister of Agriculture November 1904-October 1908. Chairman Royal Commission Tramway Fares 1910-11. Public Accounts committee 1909-13.
