Joseph Kirton

Joseph William Kirton (1861 – 1935) was an Australian politician, who after primary school was apprenticed to a trade, worked in the Victorian Post and Telegraph Department, with continued studies he became an Auctioneer and Commission Agent. He served thee terms in the Victorian Parliament and became a Director and the Chief President of the Australian Natives' Association.

Early life

Kirton was born in 1861 in Ballarat East, the son of boot-maker Emanuel Kirton and his wife Jane Milburn, both from Cumberland, England. After a primary education in Oldham's National School and its successor, the Dana Street State School in Ballarat he was apprenticed to a trade and then worked in the Post and Telegraph Department. He continued his studies with a tutor from the School of Mines, and became an Auctioneer and Commission Agent. There are no records of his parliamentary speeches.

He was Chairman of the 1897-98 Royal Commission on old age pensions, was a member of the Royal Commissions on gold mining (1889–91) and was a member of the Royal Commission into the factories and shops laws (1900–02)

Becoming a director in 1892 and Chief President of the ANA in 1895, Kirton worked to achieve a democratic form of federation for Australia, with universal suffrage and limitation of the powers of the Senate. He actively supported the "Yes" campaign for Federation.

Later years

In 1911 Kirton moved to Melbourne, where he set up an estate agency and became secretary of Victorian Master Baker's Association, working with that organisation until 1921.