Robert Turnbull (Australian politician)

Robert Turnbull (c.1819 – 21 November 1872) was a merchant and politician in colonial Victoria (Australia), and a member of the Victorian Legislative Council.[1]

Life and career

Turnbull was born in East Lothian, Scotland, and moved to the Port Phillip District in 1840[1] via Van Diemens Land having arrived there in 1839 in the ship Charlotte.[2] In Melbourne he became a partner in Turnbull, Orr & Co importing manufactured goods. He later formed R. & P. Turnbull in Market St, Melbourne.[3]

The office of Turnbull, Orr and Co., at Port Albert, was built in 1844

He lived in Port Albert in the 1840s managing the interests of his firm in Gippsland where the partnership had a dozen pastoral properties between 1838 and 1857.[4] His five brothers were part owners of some of these properties. He retained his business connections with Melbourne and in 1851 he was elected to the inaugural Melbourne Chamber of Commerce.[5]

He was a member of the Melbourne Club and the Union Club.[6]

His wife was Marion Paterson and they had seven children.

Politics

In September 1851 Turnbull was elected unopposed[7] as member for Wimmera in the first (unicameral) Victorian Legislative Council.[8] He was sworn-in November 1851 and held the seat until resigning in May 1853.[1]

Turnbull was again elected to the Victorian Legislative Council as member for Eastern Province in a by-election in January 1864, a seat he held until his death in St Kilda, Victoria.[1] He was 53 years of age and was survived by his wife and five of their children.

References
  1. "Robert Turnbull". Re-Member: a database of all Victorian MPs since 1851. Parliament of Victoria. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
  2. "Death of the Hon. Robert Turnbull". The North Eastern Ensign. 26 November 1872. Retrieved 27 August 2022 – via Trove.
  3. Lennon, Jane (2022). Across Bass Strait. Melbourne: Anchor Books. p. 101.
  4. Billis, R.V.; Kenyon, A.S. (1974). Pastoral Pioneers of Port Phillip (2nd ed.). Melbourne: Stockland Press. pp. 151–2. ISBN 0909474087.
  5. Lennon, p. 102.
  6. de Serville, Paul (1991). Pounds and Pedigrees: The Upper Class in Victoria, 1850-1880 (First ed.). Melbourne: Oxford University Press Australia. p. 343. ISBN 0195545176.
  7. "Gipps' Land Election". Geelong Advertiser. 17 September 1851. p. 2. Retrieved 25 August 2014 – via Trove.
  8. Labilliere, Francis Peter. Early History of the Colony of Victoria. Vol. II.

 

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