William Robert Withers (born 8 August 1931) is a former Australian politician. He was born in Sydney to butcher Robert Stephen Withers and Elsie Mary McPharland. He attended

Kogarah Kogarah () is a suburb of Southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Kogarah is located 14 kilometres (9 miles) south-west of the Sydney central business district and is considered to be the centre of the St George, New South ...

Primary School and then

Sydney Technical High School Sydney Technical High School (STHS) is a government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school for boys, located in Bexley, a southern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1911 as part of Sydney Technic ...

, graduating in 1947. He worked as a fishing and tourist guide before joining the

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

in 1948, serving until 1957. On 3 July 1954, he married Judith Mary Wakefield in

Werribee Werribee is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Melbourne City Centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham Local government areas of Victoria, local government a ...

; they had three children. From 1956 until 1964 he was a senior cloud seeding officer in a joint RAAF- CSIRO operation. In 1964 he moved to Kununurra, becoming a partner in a general store and then a motor dealership. From 1966 he rain a jewellery store. He served on Wyndham-East Kimberley Shire Council from 1965 to 1971. In September 1970 he joined the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

, and four days later he was endorsed for the

Western Australian Legislative Council The Western Australian Legislative Council is the upper house of the Parliament of Western Australia, a state of Australia. It is regarded as a house of review for legislation passed by the Legislative Assembly, the lower house. The two Houses ...

's North Province. He was a backbencher throughout his time in parliament, and in 1981 he resigned from the Liberal Party due to his disagreement with an electoral redistribution. He resigned from the Council in 1982.

References

1931 births Living people Members of the Western Australian Legislative Council Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Western Australia Independent members of the Parliament of Western Australia {{Australia-Liberal-politician-stub