Background
Stewart was born in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray, Victoria and educated at Yarraville State School.
Stewart was born in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray, Victoria and educated at Yarraville State School.
Foreign the United States Representative, see Percy Hamilton Stewart
He helped bring down Stanley Bruce"s government in 1929, but died soon after. He worked in Melbourne and western Victoria, including a period as a shepherd, and then went to sea. He gained a master"s certificate, but gave up sailing after contracting malaria.
He then travelled in Europe and Canada before returning to Australia in 1909.
In 1913, he selected a block of land in the Mallee at Carwarp, but later sold it and moved to another farm at Carwarp West. In 1916 Stewart married Edith Catherine Roberts.
During World War I, he volunteered three times for military service but was turned down on health grounds. He worked with the Victorian Department of Agriculture to develop new techniques to improve crops yields in the Mallee.
He bought the Mildura Sunraysia Daily in 1924 and was its chairman until his death.
Inspired by the Canadian grain growers" associations, Stewart helped found the Victorian Farmers" Union, which eventually developed into the Victorian branch of the Country Party. In parliament, he was highly independent and often voted with the Labor Party. As minister, he was also president of the River Murray Commission, which allowed him to press for the completion of the Hume Weir.
He also helped to establish the irrigated citrus industry along the Murray River.
On 28 August 1923, he turned the first sod on the construction of the provisional Parliament House in Canberra. He and Albert Dunstan then established the Victorian Country Progressive Party, which held the balance of power in the Victorian Legislative Assembly in the late 1920s and sought to establish compulsory nationwide pools and guaranteed prices for wheat.
This idea eventually led to the establishment of the Australian Wheat Board. Bruce campaigned against his re-election at the 1928 election and 1929 election, without success.
In September 1929, he voted against Bruce"s bill to abolish the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, helping to bring down his government.
After the election of the Scullin government in 1929, he worked closely with it and sought reduced tariffs and a range of government interventions to raise rural incomes.
Political career
In August 1924, Stewart resigned his portfolio in protest at a deal between Bruce and Page that protected sitting members from opposition from coalition party candidates at elections, which he regarded as an unwarranted restriction on voters" choice.
He was an original member of the Victorian Farmers" Union and long a radical campaigner for farming interests. He was one of five original members of the VFU in the House of Representatives and took a large part in negotiating the formation of the Bruce–Page coalition government in late 1922, and he became Minister for Works and Railways in the resulting ministry.