Richard Hooper (Australian politician)

Richard Hooper (25 January 1846 – 24 July 1909) was an Australian politician who represented the South Australian House of Assembly multi-member seat of Wallaroo from 1891 to 1902.[1][2][3]

Hooper was born in Cornwall in England and arrived in South Australia in 1858. He was a miner at Moonta, and became president of the Moonta Amalgamated Miners' Association in 1889.[4] Hooper was the first Labor member of the South Australian House of Assembly, but was not a member of the newly formed United Labor Party, instead serving as an Independent Labor member. He was first elected at the 1891 Wallaroo by-election on 23 May. He was re-elected as an Independent Labor member in 1893, 1896 and 1899; although he attended caucus meetings he never joined the United Labor Party.[5] After his parliamentary career, he moved to Western Australia, where he worked as a nightwatchman and was active in the Labor Party there.[4]

  1. ^ "Richard Hooper". Former members of the Parliament of South Australia. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  2. ^ "Direct Labor candidates". The Advertiser. 27 January 1893. p. 5. Retrieved 24 August 2022 – via Trove.
  3. ^ "Uncompleted returns". Kalgoorlie Western Argus. 30 April 1896. p. 12. Retrieved 24 August 2022 – via Trove.
  4. ^ a b Coxon, Howard F.; Playford, John & Reid, Robert (1985). Biographical Register of the South Australian Parliament, 1857-1957. Wakefield Press. p. 111. ISBN 9780949268242. Retrieved 25 December 2018.
  5. ^ Slee, Ron (1983). "Hooper, Richard (1846–1909)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 24 August 2022.