Cover image for Walter Woods
Agency:
Walter Woods
Agency Number:
Start Date:
28 Dec 1861
End Date:
28 Feb 1939
Description:
Walter Alan Woods (1861-1939), journalist and politician, was born on 28 December 1861 at Mulgrave, Victoria, the son of William Head and Ann Margaret (formerly Priest). In his youth, he travelled through the Riverina, New South Wales, working as a shearer, an experience which he documented in poetry as 'John Drayman'. He quickly rose to prominence as a labour organiser and journalist. He belonged to the utopian New Australia Movement but family circumstances prevented his joining the colony in Paraguay.;;In 1895, he arrived in Launceston, Tasmania to work on the Tasmanian Democrat and later, in Hobart, on the Clipper, both labor-orientated newspapers. He became heavily involved in numerous labor and trade union activities and eventually won a seat in the Tasmanian House of Assembly. His parliamentary career spanned over twenty years.;;Among his papers, are records of the Labor Party, Tasmanian Workers Political League, Housewives Union, Young Australia National Party, Proportional Representation Society and the New Australia Movement.;;
Information Sources:
Marilyn Lake, 'Woods, Walter Alan (1861-1939)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University