Edward Heitmann

Who was Edward Heitmann?

Edward Ernest Heitmann, was an Australian politician and member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 1904 to 1917, then a member of the Australian House of Representatives until 1919.

Edward Heitmann was born in California Gully, Bendigo, Victoria on 3 June 1878. The son of carpenter and blacksmith Herman Heitmann and Katherine née Roberts, he was educated locally. He became a miner at an early age, eventually graduating to shaftsman before qualifying as a mine engine driver. In 1895 he moved to Western Australia but by the following year he had returned to Victoria, where took courses at the Bendigo School of Mines and Industries. On 29 June 1896 he married Emma Jane Johns; they would have a son and two daughters before her death in 1905. In 1909 he married Ada Maude Cooke, with whom he would have two sons and a daughter.

In 1899, Heitmann returned to Western Australia to work on the Murchison goldfields. He became increasingly involved in the Labor movement, becoming president of the Day Dawn Engine Drivers' Association, and organising secretary of the Australian Workers' Union.