Albert Norton

Who was Albert Norton?

Albert Norton was a Queensland politician, Speaker of the Queensland Legislative Assembly and pastoralist.

Norton was the sixth son of James Norton, born at the family home, "Elswick" now Leichhardt, New South Wales. He was educated at the Rev. F. Wilkinson's school at Sydney, and from 1852 to 1857 was gaining experience on stations in the New England district of New South Wales. During the next three years he had a wandering life in New South Wales and Victoria, but in 1860 bought the Rodd's Bay station in the Port Curtis district, Queensland. He specialised in cattle, and in spite of some bad experiences with drought and disease, became a successful pastoralist.

In 1866 he stood for the Port Curtis seat in the Legislative Assembly but was defeated, and in the following year was nominated to the Legislative Council. He resigned his seat in 1868 and did not attempt to enter politics again until in 1878, having previously retired from his station, he was elected unopposed for Port Curtis. In March 1883, on the resignation of John Murtagh Macrossan, Norton accepted office as Minister for Works and Mines in the first McIlwraith Ministry. In 1888 Norton was unanimously elected speaker of the legislative assembly. He lost his seat at the 1893 election, and in 1894 was nominated as a member of the legislative council.