William Dawson Grubb was a Tasmanian politician, lawyer, and investor in timber and mining ventures. Grubb was born on 16 October 1817, in London, England. He first came to

Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sep ...

in 1832, but returned to England to complete his legal qualifications. While in England, he married Marianne Beaumont.M. J. Saclier
''Grubb, William Dawson (1817–1879)''
Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1972, accessed online 16 January 2018. After he returned to Tasmania in 1842, he was admitted as a barrister and solicitor to the Supreme Court of Tasmania. He was the member of the

Tasmanian Legislative Council The Tasmanian Legislative Council is the upper house of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. It is one of the two chambers of the Parliament, the other being the House of Assembly. Both houses sit in Parliament House in the state capital, ...

for the electorate of Tamar from 14 July 1869 to February 1879. In addition to his successful legal practice, Grubb's main business ventures were in timber and mining. His most successful investments were in the ''New Native Youth'' and ''Tasmania'' gold mines. The ''Tasmania'' mine at Beaconsfield had paid dividends of over £700,000 by 1900, and it was one of the deepest and richest mines in Australia, by the time it closed in 1914. One of the three original shafts of the mine, commenced in 1879, was named for Grubb. In December 1877, he was one of the buyers of the land, plant and mining lease of the

Tamar Hematite Iron Company The Tamar Hematite Iron Company (THIC) was an iron mining and smelting company that operated from April 1874 to December 1877, in the area close to the location of the modern-day township of Beaconsfield, Tasmania, Australia. The company's oper ...

. The buyers, four wealthy Tasmanian politicians and a Launceston merchant, were then able to obtain a valuable gold mining lease adjacent to the ''Tasmania'' lease, for a small outlay. They did that under the provisions of new mining legislation, upon which the politicians had just voted. Certainly a conflict of interest, today it would be seen as corruption. William Grubb died at Launceston, Tasmania, on 8 February 1879. He was survived by three sons and two daughters. His eldest son was Frederick William Grubb, who became the member for Tamar following his father's death. His name was given to a colonial-era timber tramway in which he was involved,

Grubb's Tramway (Mowbray) Grubb's Tramway was a partially completed, private logging tram line in Tasmania from the junction of the Launceston- George Town Road at the Tamar River near Mowbray to a saw mill at Pipers River The Pipers River is a perennial river loc ...

. Railway or tramway to be constructed by William Dawson Grubb and William Tyson, Surveyor James Scott. Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office: AF398-1-136. Another later colonial-era tramway,

Grubb's Tramway (Zeehan) Grubb's Tramway was a more than long horse-drawn light railway in Western Tasmania. It was opened in 1891 from Zeehan to Summit and the ''Colonel North Mine''. It became the Colonel North Tramway in 1899 and closed in 1927.W. Edmundson''Nitrate ...

, was named after his eldest son.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grubb, William Dawson 1817 births 1879 deaths Members of the Tasmanian Legislative Council Politicians from the Colony of Tasmania