Leopold Broinowski

Who was Leopold Broinowski?

Leopold Thomas Broinowski was an Australian political journalist.

Broinowski was born in Carlton to ornithologist and artist Gracius Joseph Broinowski and Jane, née Smith. The family moved to Sydney in 1880 where Leopold attended St Ignatius' College, Riverview. He studied at the University of Sydney and graduated with an Bachelor of Arts in 1897 after spending time as a teacher and helping on his father's Campbelltown farm. A strong proponent of Federation, he abandoned his law degree in 1898 to become Edmund Barton's secretary during the Federation referenda. He subsequently became a journalist, writing for the Goulburn Evening Penny Post before moving to Hobart to work for the Mercury, of which he became associate editor in 1904. In 1908 he married Annie Coverdale Sorell, with whom he had two children.

Broinowski contested the Australian House of Representatives at the 1922 federal election, running unsuccessfully as one of three endorsed Nationalists in Denison. His early support for federation was tempered by a strong states' rights campaign; his slogan was "Tasmania First".