James Styles (3 July 1841 – 4 February 1913) was a contractor, civil engineer and politician in Victoria, Australia.

Early life

Born in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, Styles migrated to Australia in 1849 with his family, where he was educated at private schools in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. He became a civil engineer and railway contractor, working with his father in Queensland on the construction of the Western railway line between

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 C ...

and Dalby before returning to Victoria in 1869 where he undertook further railway construction. In the 1870s he moved to South Australia where he was the resident engineer on the construction of the

Peterborough railway line The Peterborough railway line was a railway line on the South Australian Railways network. It extended from a junction at Roseworthy on the Morgan railway line through Hamley Bridge, Riverton, initially to Tarlee, then extended in stages to P ...

between Burra and Hallett and was a contractor on the construction of water and sewerage systems in Adelaide. He returned to Victoria in 1883 and was elected to the Williamstown Council. Styles was the council's representative on the

Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works The Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) was a public utility board in Melbourne, Australia, set up in 1891 to provide water supply, sewerage and sewage treatment functions for the city. In 1992, the MMBW was merged with a number of sm ...

and applied unsuccessfully for the position of chairman in 1891. Styles frequently clashed with the Board's chairman,

Edmond Gerald FitzGibbon Edmund Gerald FitzGibbon (1 November 1825 – 12 December 1905) was a barrister and Town clerk of Melbourne.Bernard Barrett,FitzGibbon, Edmund Gerald (1825 - 1905), '' Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Vol. 4, MUP, 1972, pp 181-182. FitzGibb ...

Political career

Styles was a candidate for the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presiding ...

seat of Williamstown in 1889 and 1889, but was unsuccessful, before winning the seat in 1894, a position he held until 1900. He was a

Protectionist Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations. ...

candidate for Victoria at the 1901 senate election where he was elected fourth, for the short term seat, ending on 30 December 1903. At the 1903 Senate election he again finished fourth and so filled the vacancy due to the death of Sir Frederick Sargood. He stood again at the 1906 senate election but was defeated, finishing fifth, part of the decline of the Protectionist Party in Victoria.

Personal life

While working in Queensland, Styles married Teresa Dignam on 23 February 1865 and they would have a son, James, and two daughters, Teresa and Maude. He died in Hawthorn in 1913, aged 71, survived by his wife, James and Maude.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Styles, James Protectionist Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian Senate for Victoria Members of the Australian Senate Engineers from Melbourne Victoria (Australia) state politicians 1841 births 1913 deaths 20th-century Australian politicians