George Cooke (1 May 1869 – 24 March 1938) was an Australian politician who represented the

South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the South Australian Legislative Council, Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House, Adelaide, Parliament House in the st ...

multi-member An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections ma ...

seat of Barossa from 1924 to 1933. He was elected as a member of the Labor Party, but was expelled from the party in the 1931 Labor split and sat with the splinter

Parliamentary Labor Party The Parliamentary Labor Party (also known as the Premiers' Plan Labor Party or Ministerial Labor Party) was a political party active in South Australia from August 1931 until June 1934. The party came into existence as a result of intense dispu ...

for the remainder of his term. Cooke was born in

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( , nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar') is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 ...

, the son of a farmer. He was a sheep and cattle farmer and at other times a labourer and contractor for many years. He joined the Labor Party when it was first established in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

. He bought a home at Gilles Plains in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

around 1908. Having studied fruitgrowing at the Adelaide School of Mines, he established his own orchard, specialising in

peaches The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fu ...

. He supported the

White Australia Policy The White Australia policy is a term encapsulating a set of historical policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origin, especially Asians (primarily Chinese) and Pacific Islanders, from immigrating to Australia, starting i ...

and opposed conscription in World War I. He retired from politics at the 1933 election. He died in 1938, having suffered "creeping paralysis" that made him "virtually an invalid" for several years prior to his death.

References

1869 births 1938 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of South Australia Members of the South Australian House of Assembly {{Australia-Labor-politician-stub