He was born in Sheffield in Yorkshire to platelayer Joseph Bavister and Kesiah Langley, and moved to Bedfordshire at a young age.
In 1883 he migrated to Sydney, where he was soon involved in the United Operative Bricklayers' Society of New South Wales, serving as a delegate on the Trades and Labor Council from 1889 to 1890.
By 1894, when he moved to the seat of Ashfield, he had become a Free Trader, having refused to sign the pledge enforcing a binding vote in 1893.
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