16 Facts About Bertie Johnston

Edward Bertram Johnston, known as Bertie Johnston, was the Western Australian Legislative Assembly member for Williams-Narrogin from 1911 to 1928, and a Senator from 1929 until 1942.

Bertie Johnston was educated at High School in Perth, and from 1895 to 1909 was employed as a clerk in the Lands and Surveys Department.

Bertie Johnston later became a wheat and sheep farmer near Narrogin, and a substantial investor in hotels and real estate.

Bertie Johnston joined the Australian Labor Party, and on 3 October 1911 was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Williams-Narrogin.

Bertie Johnston was the only Labor member for a farming seat after 1914, and he was greatly angered by Scaddan's failure to honour a promise to lower the price of crown land.

In protest, Bertie Johnston resigned from the Labor party and from parliament on 18 December 1915.

Bertie Johnston then contested the resulting by-election as an independent, and won.

In February 1917, Labor moved a motion of censure against the government, and Bertie Johnston indicated his intention to move an amendment.

Bertie Johnston became Speaker on 13 February 1917, and the government were then able to defeat the censure motion by a single vote.

When during a heated argument Bertie Johnston commanded Labor member John Holman to leave the chamber, Holman refused and a policeman was called to eject him.

Bertie Johnston was forced to suspend the sitting, and the following day he resigned as Speaker, to be replaced by former leader of the Country party James Gardiner.

Bertie Johnston won his seat as a Country Party candidate in the election of September 1917, and would hold it for the Country Party until 1928.

Bertie Johnston resigned his Legislative Assembly seat on 3 October 1928, and on 17 November was elected to the Australian Senate for the federal Country Party.

Bertie Johnston took up his seat in the Senate on 1 July 1929, and remained a senator until his death in 1942.

Bertie Johnston fathered three daughters, one of whom married David Wordsworth, a future member of the Western Australian Legislative Council.

Bertie Johnston owned a number of hotels in the Perth metropolitan area, as well as significant investments in rural Western Australia.