Thomas Alexander Johnson

Thomas Alexander Johnson (19 June 1835 – 28 October 1914) was an Irish Australian businessman, Mayor of Warwick and member of the Queensland Legislative Council.

[9] In 1879, Johnson was elected as an alderman of the Warwick Town Council, serving for nineteen years, which included being mayor from 1881 to 1884.

[1] Johnson was a member of the council at the same time as future Queensland Premier, Sir Arthur Morgan.

[2] In 1900, Johnson and his wife Kate traveled to the United Kingdom promoting Queensland and its produce, returning over 18 months later in 1901.

On the day after our arrival I saw by the London papers that the Australian Commonwealth Bill was to be introduced in the House of Commons on the following Monday.

Sir Horace Tozer very kindly obtained for me a card of admittance to the House of Commons, although a large number of people had to be refused for want of room, as very great interest was taken in London and throughout England on the introduction of the Bill.

[12] Appointments to the Legislative Council were made for life, and Johnson remained a member until his death ten years later.

[2] During a period of his time as a member of the upper house, Johnson's former fellow councilor from Warwick, Sir Arthur Morgan, was Premier of Queensland.

I do not say it is not open to amendment in some of its details, but there seems to be a wave of feeling at the present time rolling over the Commonwealth from one side to the other in favor of adult suffrage.

When the Secretary for Public Instruction introduced the Bill in the other Chamber, he stated that it was thirty five yours since the foundation of a University was first brought before the Queensland Parliament by Sir Charles Lilley and the Hon.

We have waited eighteen years since then, until 1909, and nothing was done until the present Kidston Government took the matter up, and it is very much to their credit that they have brought forward this Bill.