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Former Member Details

Mr William Edward ABBOTT (1844 - 1924)

Member Photo
Date of Birth: 01/04/1844
Place of Birth: Muswellbrook, New South Wales, Australia
Date of Death: 14/11/1924
Place of Death: 'Murulla', near Wingen, New South Wales, Australia
Parliamentary Service
Position Start End Period Notes
Segenhoe Estate Irrigation Bill Committee No.8 27 May 1891 02 Jun 1891 7 days
Segenhoe Estate Irrigation Bill Committee No.45 16 Dec 1890 20 Dec 1890 5 days
Redhead Coalmine Railway Act Amending Bill Committee No.19 03 Jul 1889 17 Jul 1889 15 days
Member for Upper Hunter 04 Feb 1889 06 Jun 1891 2 years 4 months 3 days
Member of the NSW Legislative Assembly 04 Feb 1889 06 Jun 1891 2 years 4 months 3 days
Political Party Activity
Community Activity
Member of Council of the Pastoralists' Union 1890. President from 1894-1897, 1900-1910. President Pastoralists' Federal Council of Australia in 1891.
Qualifications, occupations and interests
Pastoralist. Educated at The King's School, Parramatta, and briefly at Sydney Grammar School. At 16 he took over the family property at Wingen. Gradually converted leasehold to freehold, acquiring one of the most valuable runs on the upper Hunter. By 1890, his Abbotsford estate, incorporting Glengarry and Murralla stations, had 21,000 sheep and 100 cattle on 30,000 acres. Author of:'Notes of a Journey on the Darling, 1881'Essays Political and Scientific, 1890 'Poems', 1892 'The Rabbit Pest and the Balance of Nature', 1913 'Mount Wingen and the Wingen Coal Measures', 1918
Military Service
Honours Received
Member Royal Society of New South Wales 1877-1924, awarded its bronze medal in 1884
Membership of other Parliaments & Offices Held
Local Government Activity
Personal
Second son of John Kingsmill Abbott, squatter, and Frances Amanda Brady. Unmarried. Church of England faith.
Additional Information
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7 John Merritt, That Voluminous Squatter: W. E. Abbott, Wingen, Turalla Press, 1999