Robert Cook (18 April 1867 – 21 May 1930) was an Australian politician. He was a Country Party member of the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. ...

from 1919 to 1928, representing the

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

electorate of

Indi Indi may refer to: *Mag-indi language *Division of Indi, an electoral division in the Australian House of Representatives * Indi, Karnataka, a town in the state of Karnataka, India * Instrument Neutral Distributed Interface, a distributed control s ...

Early life

Cook was born at

Chiltern, Victoria Chiltern is a town in Victoria, Australia, in the northeast of the state between Wangaratta and Wodonga, in the Shire of Indigo. At the 2021 census, Chiltern had a population of 1,580. It is the birthplace of Prime Minister John McEwen. The t ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

splitter Henry Cook and his Irish wife Mary, née Wilkinson. He received little formal education and was soon a land-owner, owning land at

Tallangatta Tallangatta () is a town in north-eastern Victoria, Australia. The town lies on the banks of the Mitta Arm of Lake Hume, approximately south-east of Albury-Wodonga along the Murray Valley Highway. At the , Tallangatta had a population of 1 ...

and Porepunkah. He married Sarah Anne Weston on 24 December 1894 at Porepunkah; in 1905, they moved to Oxley and established a dairy farm.

Local politics

Cook was a member of Chiltern Shire Council 1902–04, and was elected to the

Shire of Oxley The Shire of Oxley was a local government area in Victoria, Australia, immediately to the south of the city of Wangaratta, which housed the shire's council chambers. Oxley covered an area of , and existed from 1862 until 1994. History The Oxl ...

Council in 1908, being its president 1910-11 and 1916–17. He became one of the most active public figures in the

Wangaratta Wangaratta ( ) is a city in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, from Melbourne along the Hume Highway. The city had a population of 29,808 per the 2021 Australian Census. The city is located at the confluence, junction of the Ovens River, ...

district, founding the North-Eastern Co-operative Society Ltd in 1906. He was also a director of the Milawa Dairy Co and chairman of the Butter and Chesse Factories Association of Victoria, and held membership of the Victorian Dairy Council, the Western and Murray Co-operative Bacon and Meat Packing Co, the Wangaratta Agricultural Society, and the Melbourne Chamber of Agriculture.

Federal politics

In 1919, Cook stood for the

as a candidate for the

Victorian Farmers Union The Victorian Farmers' Union (VFU) was an association of farmers and primary producers formed in 1914 in the Australian state of Victoria. Although initially formed as an "absolutely non-political" entity, the VFU became a political party in 191 ...

, and defeated sitting

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

member

John Leckie John William Leckie (born 23 October 1949) is an English record producer and recording engineer. His production credits include Magazine's ''Real Life'' (1978); XTC's '' White Music'' (1978); Dukes of Stratosphear's '' 25 O'Clock'' and the F ...

. The following year, Cook joined several other rural MPs in forming the Country Party. Cook was handily returned under the Country banner in 1922 and 1925. However, in 1928, he mistakenly failed to lodge his renomination papers, resulting in

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 ...

challenger Paul Jones taking the seat unopposed. He tried to regain the seat in 1929, but narrowly lost to Jones. Cook's health deteriorated until he died in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

on 21 May 1930, survived by three daughters and two sons. His wife Sarah had died on 26 June 1927. Cook was buried at the local cemetery at Milawa.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Robert 1867 births 1930 deaths National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Indi Australian MPs 1919–1922 Australian MPs 1922–1925 Australian MPs 1925–1928