Career
Born in Albury, Bunton left school at 13 and initially worked as a clerk in a solicitor"s office before becoming an accountants He also was involved in Albury sporting and community affairs, playing Australian rules football with the Albury Football Club, becoming captain-coach and club secretary at 17. Bunton married Eileen O"Malley in 1930.
In 1930, he was elected president of the Ovens and Murray Football League (a position he held until 1969).
He also held administrative roles in the Victorian Country Football League, the West Albury Tennis Club and a range of other community groups and organisations. In recognition of his role in Albury, Bunton was encouraged to run for a position on the Albury Municipal Council, and was elected in 1925 at the age of 22, the youngest person ever elected to a council to that time.
After initially retiring in 1931, he returned to the council in 1937, elected Mayor of Albury in 1945 and served as from 1946 until August 1976 (with brief breaks in 1961 and 1972-1973). Bunton was also a regional radio commentator, commenting on sport and reading the news bulletins.
Bunton would have remained an uncontroversial hardworking local administrator but for the resignation of Australian Labor Party Senator for New South Wales Lionel Murphy on 9 February 1975 to take up an appointment as a judge of the High Court.
However, on 27 February the New South Wales Liberal Party Premier, Tom Lewis, defied this convention by appointing Bunton, who was not affiliated with any party. Facing a hostile Labor Party (and sometimes hostile electorate), Bunton surprised many observers by acting independently rather than as a Liberal appointee, and resisted urgings from the Malcolm Fraser-led Opposition to block the supply bills of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam"s government, instead supporting Labor on the supply bills during the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. Bunton chose not to contest the ensuing election but to retire.