The members of the Australian Parliament assembled for the first time in Melbourne on 9 May 1901. One hundred and eleven members, comprising 36 senators and 75 members of the House of Representatives, had been elected in polls held in all states on the 29th or 30th March.
111 First Australian Parliament Geocache series. BYO PEN
Arthur Groom was born in Harefield, Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania). A successful stock and station agent and auctioneer, Groom represented the Gippsland area in the Victorian Legislative Assembly 1886-92.
Groom was elected to the House of Representatives as a Freetrader for the Victorian seat of Flinders at the first federal election in 1901, and retired in 1903. Despite his close proximity to the seat of parliament, Groom often absented himself from the House to attend to his business interests.
On retirement from politics in 1903 Groom was a member of a syndicate which purchased a northern New South Wales property, the subsequent improvement and subdivision of which proved a great success. He then looked further north and established himself as a special agent for the Queensland government for the sale of land. He settled in north-west Queensland, where he died in 1922.