{{Short description|Australian politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = | honorific_suffix = | image = Edwin Henry Austin.jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_date = 23 August 1860 | birth_place = Barwon Park, Winchelsea, Victoria | death_date = {{death date and age|1909|November|30|1860|August|3|df=yes}} | death_place = Stawell, Victoria | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | birth_name = | citizenship = | party = | mother = | father = | other_party = <!--For additional political affiliations--> | spouse = | partner = <!--For those with a domestic partner and not married--> | relations = | children = | alma_mater = | occupation = | profession = | cabinet = | committees = | office1 = | term_start1 = | term_end1 = | predecessor1 = | successor1 =
| constituency_AM5 = Electoral district of Ripon and Hampden | assembly5 = Victorian Legislative | term_start5 = May 1892 | term_end5 = October 1900 | predecessor5 = William Uren | successor5 = David Oman
| office6 = Member of the Victorian Legislative Council for Nelson Province | term_start6 = October 1906 | term_end6 = November 1909 | alongside6 = James Drysdale Brown | predecessor6 = Hans Irvine | successor6 = Thomas Carthew Miners
| signature = | signature_alt = | website = | footnotes = }}
'''Edwin Henry Austin''' (23 August 1860 – 30 November 1909) was an Australian politician in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. Austin served as the member for Ripon and Hampden between 1892 and 1900 and went on to serve in the Legislative Council for Nelson Province between 1906 and 1909.<ref name="parliament-of-vic">{{Cite Parliament of Victoria Member Profile|name=Edwin Henry Austin|id=edwin-austin|access-date=2 April 2025}}</ref> Austin ran as a conservative.<ref name="ADoB" />
== Personal life == Austin was the second son of pastoralist Thomas Austin and Elizabeth Phillips Harding.<ref name="ADoB">{{Cite Australian Dictionary of Biography|title=Edwin Henry Austin (1860–1909)|last=Brown|first=P.L.|year=1979|volume=7|id2=austin-edwin-henry-5600|access-date=16 April 2025}}</ref> Austin's father is noted as the person who introduced rabbits into Australia.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Black |first1=Jessica |title=Australia's rabbit plague began with 24 bunnies, genetic research confirms |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-23/australias-rabbit-invasion-traced-to-1869/101361466 |access-date=16 April 2025 |work=ABC News |date=23 August 2022 |language=en-AU}}</ref> Austin attended Ballarat College before moving to Geelong Grammar School in July 1872 and eventually went to Scotch College, Melbourne from 1878.<ref name="ADoB" />
On 10 June 1884 Austin married Jessie Isabella, the Daughter government surveyor and grazier, Thomas Shaw. In 1883, Austin began a six-year lease of Gorrinn Station in the district. He went on to purchase St Enochs near Beaufort in 1888, but sold it around a decade later and made his home at Colvinsby in Dobie. He died from nephritis in Stawell on 30 November 1909. He was survived by his wife, two daughters, and his son Rex, who died of meningitis in 1914.<ref name="ADoB" />
== References == {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Austin, Edwin Henry}} Category:1860 births Category:1909 deaths Category:Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Category:Members of the Victorian Legislative Council Category:People educated at Geelong Grammar School Category:People educated at Scotch College, Melbourne Category:People educated at Ballarat Clarendon College Category:Deaths from nephritis
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