John West (23 August 1856 – 22 February 1926) was an Australian horticulturist, journalist and irrigation pioneer. West was born at

Mount Ararat Mount Ararat or , ''Ararat''; or is a snow-capped and dormant compound volcano in the extreme east of Turkey. It consists of two major volcanic cones: Greater Ararat and Little Ararat. Greater Ararat is the highest peak in Turkey and th ...

to goldminer Isaac West and Ann McMann; he received what he described as "a very imperfect education". A stablehand from the age of thirteen, he worked at Brunnings Nursery in St Kilda, attending night school to qualify as a schoolteacher and teaching at

Tatura Tatura is a town in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria, Australia, and is situated within the City of Greater Shepparton local government area, north of the state capital (Melbourne) and west of the regional centre of Shepparton. At the ...

and Murungi in the

Goulburn Valley The Goulburn Valley is a sub-region, part of the Hume region of the Australian state of Victoria. The sub-region consists of those areas in the catchment of the Goulburn River and other nearby streams, and is part of the Murray-Darling Basin. T ...

. He campaigned for vine and fruit culture after rust destroyed a wheat crop in 1878 and became farming editor of the ''Shepparton News''. He married Milvina Gardiner on 7 April 1882 near Bacchus Marsh. He also printed the ''Goulburn Valley Yeoman'' and the ''Euroa Advertiser'' and wrote for the '' Argus'' and the '' Australasian''. West was also one of the initial syndicate of five who established the first irrigation settlement in Victoria at Ardmona. Producing impressive results with his irrigation system, he was sent to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

to study irrigation methods by the commissioner of water supply, Alfred Deakin, in 1890; on his return he began training other horticulturists. Also politically active, he founded the Triple Reform League, a

free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econ ...

organisation, in 1894. A supporter of

Federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...

, he ran unsuccessfully for the Federal Convention, 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 presidin ...

and the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members o ...

(running for Moira). Returning to journalism, he joined the ''Argus'' in 1903 and was secretary of the National Union from 1909 to 1919. He retired in 1919 to a farm at Toolern Vale and continued to be active in the local community. West died in 1926 of a cerebral haemorrhage.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:West, John 1856 births 1926 deaths Australian horticulturists Australian journalists 19th-century Australian writers People from the Colony of Victoria