37 Facts About George Swinburne

George Swinburne was an Australian engineer, politician and philanthropist.

George Swinburne founded the institution which later became Swinburne University of Technology.

Mark George Swinburne was a draughtsman in the Armstrong works at Elswick, working for a salary of 27s.

On Sundays George Swinburne taught a class in a Methodist Sunday school; he had music lessons and was an avid reader.

In September 1882 George Swinburne went to London, finding employment in the gas and mechanical engineering business of his uncle, John Coates.

Politically, George Swinburne was an ardent Gladstonian Liberal, in 1886 he became election agent for the Liberal candidate for St Pancras South, Sir Julian Goldsmid, 3rd Baronet, who was elected after a strenuous campaign.

In December 1885 Coates had gone to Melbourne to start a business, George Swinburne was left in charge in London.

Coates found the prospects so good that George Swinburne followed him and arrived in November 1886.

George Swinburne's role was to secure contracts for erecting gas plants for the firm of John Coates and Company.

George Swinburne was engineer and manager of the Melbourne company until 1897.

George Swinburne visited England in 1891 and fortunately withdrew most of his capital from Melbourne to help his father and brother to start a business; in doing so he practically escaped the effects of the end of the land boom and the bank crisis of 1893.

George Swinburne visited the United States and Europe in 1897 studying the development of electricity in competition with gas.

George Swinburne decided that each would have its own place.

George Swinburne was elected a member of the Hawthorn municipal council in 1898 and in 1902 became mayor.

Also in 1902, Swinburne became member for the Electoral district of Hawthorn in the Victorian Legislative Assembly, and sat as a supporter of W H Irvine.

George Swinburne had studied Victorian irrigation and realised the huge cost of storing the winter and spring rains for use summer; he believed that water charges should take the form of a rate payable, not only by those who used the water, but by all whose land was benefitted by irrigation.

George Swinburne was in England at the time but he collected all the available literature on the subject and studied it on the voyage out.

George Swinburne then visited the irrigation settlement with leading officers of his department.

The whole problem was full of complications, but George Swinburne was able to have the drafting of the water bill begun in June 1904.

George Swinburne had to travel through the country and to try and convert the opponents to the bill.

In 1905 it passed the assembly again and George Swinburne was asked to attend the Council and explain the provisions of his bill.

George Swinburne became Minister for Agriculture in November 1904 and was of great assistance to Bent as treasurer.

George Swinburne was mainly responsible for the foundation of chairs in agricultural science and veterinary science at the University of Melbourne, although the latter chair has since been abandoned.

George Swinburne was involved in the Murray River water-sharing arrangement, his draft agreement of 1906 was remarkably close to that finally accepted in 1915.

In 1907 Bent visited England and George Swinburne was leader of the Assembly during his absence.

George Swinburne was a modest man and a lifelong Methodist with strong Christian principles.

On 31 July 1913 George Swinburne retired from parliament to become a member of the Inter-State Commission appointed by the federal government.

George Swinburne did significant World War I work and was chairman of the board of business administration of the defence department, and later was civil and finance member of the military board.

In 1919 when the electricity commission was instituted George Swinburne was appointed one of the four commissioners, with Sir John Monash as chairman.

George Swinburne resigned this position in 1925, when most of the initial difficulties of using brown coal for power generation had been surmounted.

George Swinburne worked hard but he was never too busy to find time for additional activities of importance.

George Swinburne became a member of the council of public instruction after he left state politics, and especially encouraged decentralization and technical education.

George Swinburne was for some years on the council of the University of Melbourne and was one of the trustees of the public library, museums and National Gallery of Victoria.

George Swinburne had been a candidate for the Commonwealth senate in 1922 but the Labor candidates in 1922 were elected, and in 1928 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council.

George Swinburne had married Ethel Hamer on 17 February 1890 who survived him with four daughters.

George Swinburne was over six feet in height, thin, slightly angular.

George Swinburne was only a few years in parliament, but the influence of his work was felt long-term.