James Brunker

James Nixon Brunker (28 April 1832 – 5 June 1910) was an Australian politician, Minister of Lands in the Parliament of New South Wales.

Early life and business Brunker was born in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia. He was the son of John Nixon Brunker, a wine and spirit merchant, and his wife Mary Ann, née McGreavy. He commenced articles as a solicitor's clerk, but did not complete them. In 1851, moving to Maitland in 1851 where he established a butchery. The same year he married Elizabeth Hewlett Weiss and they would have 10 children. In 1856 he became a stock and station agent, which in 1870 became a partnership with Henry Badgery and J E Wolfe, with branches in Newcastle and Sydney. The partnership dissolved and Brunker retained the Maitland business. He was an active supporter of Henry Parkes, nominating Parkes at the 1863 East Maitland by-election, and organising campaign meetings. East Maitland was abolished as a result of the 1903 re-distribution following the 1903 New South Wales referendum, and Brunker stood as the Liberal Reform Party candidate for the new district of Maitland which had largely absorbed East Maitland and West Maitland, but was defeated. On 12 June 1905 Brunker was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council and served until his resignation on 26 June 1909.

Brunker was appointed Secretary for Lands in the fourth Parkes ministry in August 1888, and again in the fifth Parkes ministry, retiring with his colleagues in October 1891. He was Colonial Secretary in the Reid ministry from 3 August 1894 to 13 September 1899, He had a lengthy illness prior to his death in Maitland, New South Wales on , survived by his wife Elizabeth, a daughter, Mary Ann Elizabeth and four sons, James Henry, George William, Arthur Frederick and Ernest Septimus, 34 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. The other five children had predeceased him.