Frederick Illingworth
Encyclopedia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
, was a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
in two Australian states
States and territories of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a union of six states and various territories. The Australian mainland is made up of five states and three territories, with the sixth state of Tasmania being made up of islands. In addition there are six island territories, known as external territories, and a...
, and a government minister
Minister (government)
A minister is a politician who holds significant public office in a national or regional government. Senior ministers are members of the cabinet....
in Western Australia. As a financier of land speculation in Victoria in the 1880s, he was heavily involved in the Victorian land boom.
Early life
Frederick Illingworth was born in Little HortonLittle Horton
Little Horton is a Ward in Bradford Metropolitan District in the county of West Yorkshire, England, named after the de -Horton family,who were once Lords of the Manor....
now part of Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
on 24 September 1844. The son of a woolcomber, he emigrated to Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, Australia with his family at the age of four. As a young man he worked as an ironmonger
Ironmongery
Ironmongery originally referred both to the manufacture, and the place of sale of iron goods produced for domestic rather than industrial use. The usage of the term has expanded in recent times to include consumer goods made of aluminium, brass, or other metals, as well as plastics...
at Brighton
Brighton, Victoria
Brighton is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 11 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Bayside. At the 2006 Census, Brighton had a population of 20,651...
, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, and he later acquired pastoral
Pastoralism
Pastoralism or pastoral farming is the branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock. It is animal husbandry: the care, tending and use of animals such as camels, goats, cattle, yaks, llamas, and sheep. It may have a mobile aspect, moving the herds in search of fresh pasture and...
land at Yalook. On 5 September 1867 he married Elizabeth Tarry, with whom he would have one son and one daughter. In the late 1870s he partnered with J. R. Hoskins to form an estate agent
Estate agent
An estate agent is a person or business that arranges the selling, renting or management of properties, and other buildings, in the United Kingdom and Ireland. An agent that specialises in renting is often called a letting or management agent...
firm, but the business failed. In 1883 he returned to ironmongery, establishing an electroplating
Electroplating
Electroplating is a plating process in which metal ions in a solution are moved by an electric field to coat an electrode. The process uses electrical current to reduce cations of a desired material from a solution and coat a conductive object with a thin layer of the material, such as a metal...
business in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
.
Victorian land boom
In 1888, Illingworth founded and became the major share holder in the Centennial Land Bank. This was a land bankLand Bank
A land bank is a bank that issues long-term loans on real estate in return for mortgages. This term could also apply to:*The Land Bank of Taiwan, a wholly state-owned bank of the Republic of China...
formed to finance speculation
Speculation
In finance, speculation is a financial action that does not promise safety of the initial investment along with the return on the principal sum...
on real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
during the Victorian land boom, an economic bubble
Economic bubble
An economic bubble is "trade in high volumes at prices that are considerably at variance with intrinsic values"...
that had begun in the early 1880s. The boom peaked around 1888, then crashed. Nearly every land company went into liquidation, and Illingworth was left with large debts. Despite having been elected to the Victorian Legislative Council
Victorian Legislative Council
The Victorian Legislative Council, is the upper of the two houses of the Parliament of Victoria, Australia; the lower house being the Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit in Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The Legislative Council serves as a house of review, in a similar fashion to...
for the Northern Province in July 1889, Illingworth fled to Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
in 1890, and the following year his seat was declared vacant for non-attendance.
Further reading
In Western Australia
In Western Australia Illingworth established himself as a land and estate agent, and invested in a number of mineMining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
s in the Murchison
Murchison River (Western Australia)
The Murchison River is the second longest river in Western Australia. It flows for about from the southern edge of the Robinson Ranges to the Indian Ocean at Kalbarri. It has a mean annual flow of about 200 million cubic metres.-Course:...
district. On 5 July 1894 he was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Council
Western Australian Legislative Council
The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the Legislative Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state...
in the seat of Nannine
Electoral district of Nannine
Nannine was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia from 1894 to 1897.The district was located in the Western Australian outback. It existed for just one term of parliament, and was represented in that time by Ministerialist Frederick Illingworth...
. He held the seat until its abolishment for the election of May 1897, when he instead won the seat of Central Murchison
Electoral district of Central Murchison
Central Murchison was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia from 1897 to 1901.The district was located in the Western Australian outback. It existed for just one term of parliament, and was created due to the large temporary population...
. This in turn was abolished for the election of 24 April 1901, so Illingworth contested and won the seat of Cue
Electoral district of Cue
Cue was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia from 1901 to 1930.The district was located in the Western Australian outback. It was held by the Labor Party for all but the first term of its existence....
. Defeated for Cue by Edward Heitmann
Edward Heitmann
Edward Ernest Heitmann , Australian politician, was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 1904 to 1917, then a member of the Australian House of Representatives until 1919....
in the election of 27 June 1904, he successfully contested the seat of West Perth
Electoral district of West Perth
The Electoral district of West Perth was a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. The district was named for its location immediately to the west of the central business district of Perth....
on 27 October 1905, holding it until his resignation on 13 August 1907.
Illingworth initially sat in parliament
Parliament of Western Australia
The Parliament of Western Australia consists of the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly . The Parliament sits at Parliament House in Harvest Terrace, Perth....
in opposition to John Forrest
John Forrest
Sir John Forrest GCMG was an Australian explorer, the first Premier of Western Australia and a cabinet minister in Australia's first federal parliament....
's government. From August 1900 until May 1901 he was Leader of the Opposition
Leader of the Opposition (Western Australia)
The Leader of the Opposition in Western Australia is the leader of the largest minority political party or coalition of parties in the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of Western Australia. By convention, he or she is generally a member of the Legislative Assembly...
, and was accordingly called upon to form a government when Forrest's successor George Throssell
George Throssell
George Lionel Throssell, CMG was the second Premier of Western Australia. He served for just three months, from 15 February 1901 until 27 May 1901 during a period of great instability in Western Australian politics....
resigned as premier in May 1901. He was unable to do so, however, because George Leake
George Leake
George Leake CMG QC was Premier of Western Australia from 27 May 1901 to 21 November 1901, and again from 23 December 1901 until his death on 24 June 1902.-Early life:...
refused to serve under him, and the other oppositionists would not serve without Leake. Eventually, an agreement was reached whereby Leake became Premier and Illingworth became Colonial Treasurer and Colonial Secretary
Colonial Secretary of Western Australia
The Colonial Secretary of Western Australia was one of the most important and powerful public offices in Western Australia, in the time when Western Australia was a British colony. The Colonial Secretary was the representative of the British Colonial Office in Western Australia, and was usually...
. he held these portfolios throughout the term of the First Leake Ministry
First Leake ministry
The First Leake Ministry was the third Ministry of the Government of Western Australia and was led by Premier George Leake, who had hitherto been the Leader of the Opposition...
, and was reappointed to the positions in the Second Leake Ministry
Second Leake ministry
The Second Leake Ministry was the fifth Ministry of the Government of Western Australia and was led by Premier George Leake, who had hitherto been the Leader of the Opposition. It succeeded the Morgans Ministry on 23 December 1901 after a series of ministerial by-elections to confirm that ministry...
. Following Leake's death in June 1902, Illingworth was not included in the ministry
James ministry
The James Ministry was the sixth Ministry of the Government of Western Australia and was led by Premier Walter James. It succeeded the Second Leake Ministry on 1 July 1902 following the death of the previous Premier, George Leake, on 24 June 1902...
of Leake's successor Walter James
Walter James
Sir Walter Hartwell James KCMG KC was the fifth Premier of Western Australia and an ardent supporter of the federation movement....
. He was Chairman of Committees
Chairman of Committees
The Chairman of Committees is an officer of the House of Lords who presides over the House when it is in committee both in the Lords Chamber and in Grand Committee, which is when committee stage is taken away from the floor to free up debating time in the main Chamber...
from 3 December 1903 to 27 June 1904, and again from 30 November 1905 until his resignation.
Illingworth had married Jane McGregor at Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
on 18 November 1896. They would have no children. Illingworth's creditors released him from his financial obligations in 1903, and the Government of Western Australia
Government of Western Australia
The formation of the Government of Western Australia is prescribed in its Constitution, which dates from 1890, although it has been amended many times since then...
then granted him £1000 as compensation for the financial proceedings taken against him in Victoria. After his resignation from the Legislative Assembly in August 1907, he must have returned to Victoria, for he died at Brighton, Victoria
Brighton, Victoria
Brighton is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 11 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Bayside. At the 2006 Census, Brighton had a population of 20,651...
on 8 September 1908, and was buried in Melbourne Cemetery.