He was educated at the Albert House Academy and the Collegiate School of St Peter in Adelaide, as well as at the Model Training Institution when his family relocated to Melbourne in 1856.

[1] Chanter's political career began in 1885 when he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the Member for Murray.

[4] Chanter lost Riverina in 1903 to the Free Trade Party candidate Robert Blackwood, but regained it in the 1904 by-election after a petition to the High Court.

[3] He again lost Riverina to Franc Falkiner, the Commonwealth Liberal Party candidate in the 1913 election, but he regained the seat for Labor in 1914.

[3] One of his sons, John Courtenay Chanter (1881–1962), served in World War I and later became a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing the division of Lachlan for the Labor Party.