Jock Winter

Jock Winter, Ballarat Historical Society collection

John Winter (c. 1800 – August 1875), familiarly known as Jock Winter, was a Scottish squatter and pastoralist in Ballarat, Victoria. Winter emigrated to Australia in 1841. He became a wealthy shepherd at Buninyong, buying a run from Henry Anderson and renaming it Bonshaw for his wife, daughter of the laird of Bonshaw. One of his employees struck gold in 1850.

Winter later sold Bonshaw and earned a great profit. After his wife's death, he remarried and lived frugally on a secluded house at the top of Stuart St, said to be the richest man in Ballarat. The suburb of Winter Valley and a Redan street is named for Winter, and Bonshaw his estate. His third son was politician William Winter-Irving.