People Australia

Frank Wise, n.d.

Wise, Frank Joseph Scott (1897-1986) agricultural adviser, premier and administrator of the Northern Territory

Birth: 30 May 1897 at Ipswich, Queensland, son of English-born parents Charles Edward Wise (1864-1945), storekeeper from Newington, Surrey, and Emily Gertrude, née Gordon (1866-1934), from Poplar, London. Marriages: (1) 12 June 1922 at St John’s Anglican Church, Cairns, Queensland, to Queensland-born Elsie Dorothy Hunter (1897-1943). They had one son and two daughters. (2) 11 November 1944 at Christ Church, Claremont, Western Australia, to Patricia McCormick (1917-1998), born at Narrogin, WA. They had one son and three daughters. Death: 29 June 1986 at Cottesloe, WA. Religion: Anglican. 

• Educated at Woodford State School, Queensland, to age of 12 then Gatton Agricultural College; matriculated. Cultivated tropical fruits in Queensland 1913-1917.
• Joined Department of Agriculture May 1917; was a farmhand at Roma State farm 1918, then was stationed in Brisbane. Field officer 1920-1922, living at Tolga in June 1922. Assistant instructor in Agriculture in 1922 working in Roma, Brisbane, and north of Townsville. Also worked in northern Tasmania.
• Agricultural adviser to Western Australian Department of Agriculture 1923-1924 concerning peanut growing project in Kimberley area outside Derby. Farmed privately at Gympie, Queensland, in 1924-1928. Appointed by Federal Government as special commissioner to North Australia Commission reporting on agriculture in the Northern Territory and north-west WA 1928-1929.
• Was tropical adviser on agricultural development in North-West WA in 1929-1933, contributing to the establishment of the banana industry at Carnarvon. Chairman of Rural Reconstruction Commission 1943-46.
• Elected member of the WA Legislative Assembly for Gascoyne from 1933 to 1951 (resigned). Was member of the Legislative Council for North Province from 1956 (by-election) to 1971.
• Minister for Agriculture and North-West, March 1935 to July 1936, for Agriculture, Education and Police, August 1936 to March 1937, for Agriculture and Education, March 1937 to April 1939 and for Lands and Agriculture, April 1939 to July 1945.
• Leader of Parliamentary Labor Party from July 1945 to June 1951 (resigned). Premier and Treasurer in WA from Aug 1945 to April 1947 (resigned after defeat of his government a general election in March 1947).
• Leader of Opposition, April 1947 until June 1951 when he resigned. He resigned from parliament in July 1951 having been appointed administrator of the Northern Territory. He held that post until June 1956. He was elected a Member of Legislative Council for the North Province in September 1956.
• In 1964 the Legislative Council was reconstituted and Wise was again elected to the Legislative Council for North Province from February 1965 to May 1971 (resigned). He was Minister for Industrial Development, Local Government and Town Planning from November 1958 to April 1959. Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council from July 1962 to June 1966. Subsequently, he was appointed chairman of Federal Commission for postwar reconstruction.
• Other positions included chairman, Select Committee inquiring into the Land Sales Control Act 1948; member of select committees inquiring into Purchasers’ Protection Bill 1933, into the Rural Relief Fund Act Amendment Bill 1937, and into School Bus Contracts and Routes 1957; chairman joint select committees inquiring into Alternative Sites for the Erection of Public Buildings 1939-40, and into the Kauri Timber Co. Ltd Agreement Bill 1950; member of Joint Select Committee inquiring into the Electoral Act 1935.
• Represented the WA branch of the Empire Parliamentary Association at a conference in London 1948, and the WA branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association at a general conference in Canberra in 1970. Appointed Order of Australia in 1979.
• Wise was the only person to lead a major political party in both the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council of WA.
• Cause of death: ventricular asystole (immediate), myocardial ischaemia (years) and diabetes (years). 

Sources
David Black & Geoffrey Bolton (eds), Biographical Register of members of the parliament of Western Australia, vol 2 1930-2010 (Perth, 2011); G. S. Reid and M. R. Oliver, The Premiers of Western Australia (Nedlands, 1982) pp 75-78; Australian Worker, 3 August 1945 p 1; Northern Standard, 29 June 1951 p 1.