[2] He landed in Queensland in March 1880 and began work as a joiner for Fairlie & Sons and within two years had formed an Eight Hour Association and participated in a campaign to remove black labour from the sugar industry.

[2] Leaving Fairlie & Sons in 1890, he set about forming the General Labourers' Union, which was later absorbed into the Australian Workers' Union and as Secretary of the Wide Bay and Burnett Branch of the Australian Labor Federation, he helped organize support for the shearers in the 1891 strike.

After a failed referendum in May 1917,[3] Premier Ryan tried a new tactic, and later that year advised the Governor, Sir Hamilton John Goold-Adams, to appoint thirteen new members whose allegiance lay with Labour to the Council.

[1] He was also an alderman on the Maryborough City Council on two separate occasions – 1896 to 1900 and 1924–1939, serving as mayor from 1933 until his death in 1939.

[1] When James Stopford, the member for the state seat of Maryborough died in November 1936,[5] Demaine, as the Labor candidate, easily won the resultant by-election held on 27 February 1937,[6] becoming the oldest person to enter Queensland Parliament.