Richard Hooper (25 January 1846 – 24 July 1909) was an Australian politician who represented the

South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly (also known as the lower house) is one of two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia, the other being the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide. Overview The House of Assem ...

multi-member seat of Wallaroo from 1891 to 1902. Hooper was born in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

in England and arrived in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

in 1858. He was a miner at Moonta, and became president of the Moonta Amalgamated Miners' Association in 1889. Hooper was the first

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

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 Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

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 Events January * January 1 ** Spanish rule formally ends in Cuba with the cession of Spanish sovereignty to the U.S., concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.''The American Monthly Review of Reviews'' (February 1899), p ...

; although he attended caucus meetings he never joined the United Labor Party. After his parliamentary career, he moved to

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, where he worked as a nightwatchman and was active in the Labor Party there.

References

Members of the South Australian House of Assembly 1846 births 1909 deaths 19th-century Australian politicians {{Australia-politician-stub