![]() Sir William McMillan photograph National Library of Australia |
THE NATIONAL
LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA'S FEDERATION GATEWAY McMILLAN, SIR WILLIAM (1850-1926) McMillan was Treasurer in the fifth Parkes administration in New South Wales and an MP in the Federal Parliament in 1901. His speeches are recorded in NSW and Federal hansards. He was born on 14 November 1850 in Londonderry, Ireland and was educated at the Tulse High School in London. McMillan came to Australia in 1869 and worked as a traveler in New South Wales and spent several years in Melbourne in the McArthurs' Flinders lane warehouse. He married Ada Charlotte Graham on 8 March 1878, and returned to Sydney in 1878. On arriving, McMillan had joined the Sydney School of Arts Debating Club where he met budding politicians like (Sir) George Reid and (Sir) Edmund Barton. By the 1880s, through his lectures, articles and letters to the press, he was recognized as an authority on commercial matters and spokesman for the interests of Sydney importers. Under pressure from the chamber and 'a large number of businessmen', he agreed to stand for East Sydney at the general election of 1887. McMillan won effortlessly and was chosen by the new Parkes Ministry to move the address-in-reply, and settled into the Legislative Assembly as leader of a small Free Trade ginger group which leavened Parkes's faction followers. McMillan resigned from the Legislative Assembly in July 1891. Under Parkes's tutelage, McMillan became a keen Federationist. He was a delegate at the 1890 Australasian Federation Conference and at the 1891 National Australasian Convention, where, he 'usefully insisted on discussing practical issues'. Elected to the 1897 Australasian Federal Convention, he spoke of the financial arrangements for the future Commonwealth as an 'insoluble conundrum' and was chosen to chair the difficult finance committee. He was appointed KCMG (Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George) in 1901 primarily in recognition of this work. McMillan represented Burwood in the Legislative Assembly in 1894-98. In May 1901 the Free Trade members of the House of Representatives elected Reid as leader and McMillan as deputy, but McMillan's career in the Federal House was short: business cares forced his retirement in 1903, and, unexpectedly, his political career was at an end. In the 1890s he was Sydney director of the National Bank of Australasia, chairman of Associated South Coast Collieries and the Metropolitan Coal Trust Co. of Sydney Ltd. McMillan died at his home, Althorne, Bellevue Hill, N.S.W. on 21 December 1926. Books of interest Martin, A. W. (Allan William).
(1955). William McMillan: a merchant in politics. [Sydney: Ford
Printers]. |
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