Frank Chaffey

Who was Frank Chaffey?

Frank Augustus Chaffey was an Australian politician.

He was born at Moonbi to farmer William Adolphus Chaffey and Amelia, née Chad. He was educated at Nemingha and Tamworth before attending Hawkesbury Agricultural College, after which he worked on the family dairy farm. He studied at Sydney Technical College from 1907 and worked as a woolclasser briefly before returning to Tamworth to run the farm. He was active in the local Farmers and Settlers Association. On 1 May 1912 he married Amy Stella McIlveen, with whom he had six children. During World War I he served with the 1st Light Horse Brigade and from 1918 to 1919 was Director of Education of the Australian Infantry Forces.

Chaffey was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1913 as the Liberal member for Tamworth. When proportional representation was introduced in 1920, he became one of the members for Namoi, but he returned to his old seat when single-member electorates were re-introduced in 1927. He was Assistant Minister for Lands and Agriculture from April 1922 until June, when he became full Minister, serving until 1925; he later served as Secretary for Mines and Minister for Forests and Colonial Secretary.