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Bolton"},"datePublished":"1993-01-01","description":"Harold Henry Collins (1887-1962), farmer and politician, was born on 9 August 1887 at Alexandra, Victoria, fourth child of native-born parents George William Collins, farmer, and his wife Mary Anne Sophia, née Coster.","headline":"Collins, Harold Henry (1887–1962)","keywords":"Harold Henry Collins, biography","isPartOf":{"@type":"Book","bookEdition":13,"bookFormat":"https://schema.org/Hardcover","datePublished":1993,"description":"The Australian Dictionary of Biography contains concise, informative and fascinating descriptions of the lives of significant and representative persons in Australian history.","image":"https://adb.anu.edu.au/images/covers/volume13.png","isbn":522845126,"name":"Australian Dictionary of Biography","url":"https://adb.anu.edu.au","copyrightHolder":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Australian National University","url":"https://www.anu.edu.au"},"copyrightYear":1993,"editor":{"@type":"Person","givenName":"John","familyName":"Ritchie","name":"John Ritchie"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Melbourne University Press","url":"https://www.mup.com.au"}}} </script> <title>Biography - Harold Henry Collins - Australian Dictionary of Biography</title> <script async src="https://ssl.google-analytics.com/ga.js"></script> <script> var _gaq = _gaq || []; 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C. Bolton</a></p> <div class="publish-notice publish-notice--major-project" style="background-color:#dee9f2;color:#153449;"> <p>This article was published:</p> <ul> <li> in the <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biographies/project/?name=australian-dictionary-biography-volume-13" style="color:#905d27;"> <span class="publish-notice__project-name">Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 13</span> </a> , 1993 </li> <li>online in 2006</li> </ul> </div> <div class="biographyContent textContent" id="17309">  <p> Harold Henry Collins (1887-1962), farmer and politician, was born on 9 August 1887 at Alexandra, Victoria, fourth child of native-born parents George William Collins, farmer, and his wife Mary Anne Sophia, née Coster. Harold was educated at Kings College, Clifton Hill, Melbourne. Having travelled in New South Wales and New Zealand, he arrived in Queensland in 1909 on horseback with all his belongings in a swag. He took various jobs, serving as overseer and book-keeper for the Queensland Federal Shearing Co. and as manager of a sheep station in the Hughenden district, before settling in 1913 as a dairy-farmer and maize-grower on the recently opened Atherton tableland. There, at Rowan Lodge, on 16 February 1915 Collins married with Presbyterian forms Barbara Catherine Annie McCraw (d.1958); they were to remain childless.</p> <p> He rose through the usual rural <i>cursus honorum</i>. Elected to the Tinaroo Shire Council in 1916, he was president (1922-25) of the Atherton Agricultural Show Society, a member (from 1923) of the maize marketing board, president (1928-29) of the Atherton Hospital Board and a member (1932-35) of the Cairns Harbour Board. With this record Collins was just the sort of successful local identity whom the <a href="smith-william-forgan-bill-8489" title="Smith, William Forgan (1887 - 1953)">Forgan Smith</a> government hoped to recruit as a parliamentary candidate. Endorsed by the Australian Labor Party, on 11 May 1935 he won the seat of Cook in the Queensland Legislative Assembly; following a redistribution in 1950, he held Tablelands until 1957. His speeches—thoughtful, well prepared and prolix—were mostly based on his farming experience. He was an advocate of co-operative societies and orderly marketing. Appointed secretary for agriculture and stock in 1946, he held the portfolio for what was then a record period of eleven years. Collins presided over the postwar expansion of Queensland's agriculture soundly, and on the whole efficiently, despite one or two failures—such as the British-funded Peak Downs project for raising sorghum and pigs, and the establishment of irrigated tobacco-growing at Clare, on the Lower Burdekin.</p> <p> During his term of office the Department of Agriculture oversaw a largely successful soldier-settlement scheme, fostered increased grain production (especially of sorghum) and encouraged the bulk handling of sugar for export during a period of great expansion. His own constituency saw the construction of Queensland's second largest reservoir at Tinaroo in the mid-1950s, which brought temporary benefit to local tobacco-growers. A successful fighter in cabinet for departmental funding, Collins was a gentlemanly and popular member of parliament; described as 'a placid unruffled debater', he spoke slowly, 'in weighty, measured tones with a somewhat precise and pedantic manner'.</p> <p> The even tenor of his career was eventually destroyed by the Labor 'split' of 1957. Like all but one of his cabinet colleagues, Collins sided with <a href="gair-vincent-clare-vince-10267" title="Gair, Vincent Clare (1901 - 1980)">V. C. Gair</a> in forming the Queensland Labor Party, and lost his seat in the election that year. He died on 12 July 1962 in Brisbane; after a state funeral, he was buried with Anglican rites in Hemmant cemetery. Tall and strapping when young, in his later life photographs show him as bald, bespectacled and burly, virtually a clone of half the Queensland cabinet ministers of that period.</p> </div> <div class="infoList"> <h3>Select Bibliography</h3> <ul> <li> C. Lack (compiler), <i>Three Decades of Queensland Political History, 1929-1960 </i>(Brisb, 1962)</li><li><i>Queensland Agricultural Journal</i>, Apr 1946</li><li><i>Courier-Mail</i> (Brisbane), 13 July 1962.</li> </ul> </div> <div class="citation"> <h3>Citation details</h3> <p>G. C. Bolton, 'Collins, Harold Henry (1887–1962)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/collins-harold-henry-9793/text17309, published first in hardcopy 1993, accessed online 26 February 2025.</p> <p id="origPubDetails"><strong>This article was published in hardcopy in <em><strong>Australian Dictionary of Biography</strong></em>, Volume 13, (Melbourne University Press), 1993</strong></p> <p style="margin-top: 20px;">View the <a href="/frontpages/fp13.pdf" target="_blank">front pages</a> for Volume 13</p> </div> <div id="printFooter"> <p class="floatLeft">© Copyright Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2006-2025</p> </div> </div> <script type="text/javascript"> $(function() { Shadowbox.init({ counterType: 'skip', continuous: true, overlayOpacity: 0.80 }); }); </script> <div id="pageSidebar"> <div class="lifeSummary"> <h3>Life Summary <span><a href ="/lifesummary/collins-harold-henry-9793" target="_blank">[details]</a></span></h3> <h5>Birth</h5> <p> <a href="/biographies/birth/?bdate=09081887">9 August</a>, <a href="/biographies/birth/?bdate=1887">1887</a> <br /> <a href="/biographies/search/?query=birthLocation%3A%22Alexandra%2C%20Victoria%2C%20Australia%22">Alexandra</a>, <a href="/biographies/search/?query=birthLocation%3A%22Victoria%2C%20Australia%22">Victoria</a>, <a href="/biographies/search/?query=birthLocation%3A%22Australia%22">Australia</a> </p> <h5>Death</h5> <p> <a href="/biographies/death/?ddate=12071962">12 July</a>, <a href="/biographies/death/?ddate=1962">1962</a> (aged 74) <br /> <a href="/biographies/search/?query=deathLocation%3A%22Brisbane%2C%20Queensland%2C%20Australia%22">Brisbane</a>, <a href="/biographies/search/?query=deathLocation%3A%22Queensland%2C%20Australia%22">Queensland</a>, <a href="/biographies/search/?query=deathLocation%3A%22Australia%22">Australia</a> </p> <div class="life-summary__heading-container"> <h5 class="life-summary__heading--note">Religious Influence</h5> <button class="life-summary__note-button" title="View explanatory note" data-note-text-id="life-summary-religious"> <img src="/images/down_arrow.png" class="life-summary__button-image"> </button> </div> <p class="life-summary__note-text" id="life-summary-religious"> Includes the religion in which subjects were raised, have chosen themselves, attendance at religious schools and/or religious funeral rites; Atheism and Agnosticism have been included. </p><ul> <li> <a href="/biographies/search/?query=religion%3A%22Anglican%22">Anglican</a> </li> </ul> <h5> Occupation or Descriptor </h5> <ul> <li> <a href="/biographies/occupation/?occupation=agrarian%20reformer&rpp=200">agrarian reformer</a> </li> <li> <a href="/biographies/occupation/?occupation=dairy%20farmer&rpp=200">dairy farmer</a> </li> <li> <a href="/biographies/occupation/?occupation=farmer&rpp=200">farmer</a> </li> <li> <a href="/biographies/occupation/?occupation=labour%20politician&rpp=200">labour politician</a> </li> <li> <a href="/biographies/occupation/?occupation=local%20government%20councillor&rpp=200">local government councillor</a> </li> <li> <a href="/biographies/occupation/?occupation=Member%20of%20Lower%20House&rpp=200">Member of Lower House</a> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> <footer> <div class="clearFix" id="footer"> <h3>Australian Dictionary of Biography</h3> <p>An initiative of the <a href="https://history.cass.anu.edu.au/centres/ncb">National Centre of Biography</a> at the <a href="https://www.anu.edu.au/">Australian National University</a></p> <div class="clearFix"> <p class="floatLeft">© Copyright Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2006-2025</p> <p class="floatLeft cdp"><a href="/copyright/">Copyright</a> · <a href="/disclaimer/">Disclaimer</a> · <a href="/privacy/">Privacy Policy</a> · <a href="/contact-us/">Contact Us</a></p> </div> </div> </footer> </body> </html>