Charles Buzacott

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Charles Hardie Buzacott (1 August 1835 – 19 July 1918), Australian journalist, publisher and politician.

Buzacott was born in Torrington, Devonshire, England, son of James Buzacott and his wife Ann, née Hitchcock. He migrated with his elder brother William to Sydney in 1852 where Charles joined the Empire newspaper and learnt to be a compositor. In 1860 he went to Maryborough, Queensland, and established the Maryborough Chronicle, selling it four years later. Buzacott then went to the Clermont goldfield, and started the Peak Downs Telegram, which he edited. In 1869 Buzacott sold his interest in the Telegram and moved to Gladstone where he took over the Observer. In 1870 Charles joined his brother William on the Rockhampton Bulletin, which the latter had established in 1861.

In 1873 Charles Buzacott was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Rockhampton. In 1874, and again in 1876, he brought in bills in an attempt to establish an eight-hour work day in Queensland, but he was in advance of his times and did not succeed in steering them past the committee stage. He resigned from the assembly in 1877, in the following year moved to Brisbane, and became a leader writer on the Courier. Having been returned to the assembly again, in January 1879 he became postmaster-general in McIlwraith's first ministry, and was responsible for the drafting of the divisional boards measure which was the foundation of later Queensland local government acts. He was an active minister, and during his two years of office he united the previously separate post and telegraph departments, and succeeded in having tenders called for a Torres Straits service between Brisbane and London. The telephone was also introduced during his period.

Pressure of other business presauded Buzacott to retire from politics at the end of 1880. He subsequently bought a large interest in the Brisbane Newspaper Company and became its managing director until 1894. After a period as an occasional contributor to the Courier, he bought the Rockhampton Argus and converted it into an evening paper, the Daily Record. He was a member of the Queensland Legislative Council 1894–1901 but did not hold office again. He founded the Daily Mail, Brisbane, in 1904, and in spite of his advancing years carried it through its early difficulties as editor and managing director. With his health failing, he retired to Stanthorpe in 1906 but continued to make occasional contributions to the press until not long before his death on 19 July 1918.

Buzacott had married Louisa Whiteford in 1857 who survived him with three sons and two daughters.

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Persondata
NAME Buzacott, Charles Hardie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Australian journalist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH 1 August 1835
PLACE OF BIRTH Torrington, Devonshire, England
DATE OF DEATH 19 July 1918
PLACE OF DEATH Stanthorpe, Queensland