{{Short description|Australian politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Use Australian English|date=August 2021}} '''Gideon Scott Lang''' (1819–1880) was a Scottish born Australian pastoralist who was a key figure in the pioneer settlement of Victoria, the Riverina and the Darling Downs regions.

Born on 25 January 1819 in Selkirk, Lang left school at 16. In 1839, his brothers migrated to Melbourne to take up land on the Saltwater (now Maribynong) River. Lang joined them two years later as a shepherd. Leaving his brothers to run a toll bridge and then a fishing business, he returned to his brothers, eventually squatting on land near Buninyong.<ref name="ADB">{{cite AuDB | id2=lang-gideon-scott-2325 |title=Lang, Gideon Scott (1819-1880) |accessdate= 24 October 2007}}</ref>

In 1848, the brothers acquired land in the Riverina, eventually holding 30 miles of Murrumbidgee River frontage. The town of Hay on the Murrumbidgee, was originally known as Lang's Crossing Place. Lang explored southern Queensland and in 1851, after obtaining information on the whereabouts of Ludwig Leichhardt attempted to begin a search, but was restrained by drought.<ref name="ADB"/>

In 1854, Lang married Elizabeth Jane Cape, the sister of the schoolmaster William Timothy Cape. He was elected to represent the Liverpool Plains and Gwydir in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1856.<ref name="Gideon Lang NSW parl">{{cite NSW Parliament |id=486 |former=Yes |title=Mr Gideon Scott Lang (1819-1880) |accessdate=19 June 2019}}</ref> On dissolution of the Assembly in 1857, Lang and his family toured Europe, meeting Giuseppe Garibaldi at Como in 1859 and returning to Australia in 1862.<ref name="ADB"/>

In 1863, Lang became the founding president of the Riverine Association, formed to promote the interests of squatters and to advocate the separation of the Riverina from New South Wales. He was the first chairman of directors of the Commercial Bank of Australia on its establishment in 1866. Late in his life, he was involved in the Sydney International Exhibition in 1879. Lang died on {{death date and age|13 July 1880|25 January 1819|df=y}}.<ref name="ADB"/>

==References== {{Reflist}} &nbsp; {{s-start}} {{s-par|au-nsw-la}} {{s-new|parliament }} {{s-ttl |title= Member for Liverpool Plains and Gwydir |with=Francis Rusden| years=1856{{spaced ndash}}1857}} {{s-aft| after= Richard Jenkins |after2=Edward Lloyd}} {{s-end}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, Gideon}} Category:1819 births Category:1880 deaths Category:19th-century Australian farmers Category:Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Category:Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia Category:People from the Riverina Category:People from Selkirk, Scottish Borders Category:People educated at Selkirk High School Category:Colony of New South Wales politicians Category:19th-century squatters Category:British emigrants to the Colony of New South Wales