He was born in Stawell to miner William Hutchinson and Mary McKay.
He was a shop assistant in Murtoa until 1885, when he became a watchmaker and jeweller at Warracknabeal.
In 1902 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the member for Borung.
Hutchinson, who had sold his Warracknabeal business in 1907 and resided in Melbourne, died in East Malvern in 1924.
His nephew John Austin Gray was later a member of the Victorian Parliament.