John Rowe (Australian politician)

John Rowe (1816 – 17 Dec 1886) was a mineral assayer and mine manager who had a brief spell as member of South Australian parliament.

He was born at St Agnes, Cornwall, and emigrated with his wife to South Australia on the David Malcolm, arriving in Adelaide on 23 January 1847, and advertised his availability as a "practical assayer".[1] In 1849 they settled in Kapunda, where he worked as an assayer. In 1859 he was appointed manager of the Mochatoona copper mine, near Angepena Station in the Flinders Ranges, but left in mid-1860 after criticism by the board,[2] compounded by the difficulty of transporting the ore to Port Augusta, and returned to Kapunda.[3]

In 1862 he was elected to the seat of Light in the House of Assembly to fill the casual vacancy opened when F. S. Dutton was appointed Agent-General, and sat from May 1862 to November 1862, when Parliament was dissolved. He did not seek re-election.[4]

He moved to Thames, New Zealand in 1869 where he joined his brothers William Rowe (MHR for Thames) and Abel Rowe, there he was advertising himself as a Practical Mining Manager and Assayer in February 1870. By 1872 he was in Sydney, again advertising himself. In December of that year and was appointed Manager of the Edina Mine in Queensland.[5] He returned again to Kapunda.[6]

He died of a heart attack shortly after assisting in the local mayoral election.

  1. ^ "Advertising". The South Australian. 11 May 1847. p. 2. Retrieved 26 May 2015 – via Trove.
  2. ^ "Mochatoona Mine". South Australian Register. 30 March 1860. p. 3. Retrieved 26 May 2015 – via Trove.
  3. ^ "Mochatoona copper mine". Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  4. ^ "John Rowe". Former members of the Parliament of South Australia. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
  5. ^ "Advertising". The Sydney Morning Herald. 16 October 1872. p. 1. Retrieved 26 May 2015 – via Trove.
  6. ^ "John Rowe". The South Australian Advertiser. 22 December 1886. p. 4. Retrieved 26 May 2015 – via Trove.