MACKENZIE, Sir Robert Ramsey Bart (1811-1873)

premier of Queensland

In the Australian Dictionary of Biography the spelling is 'Ramsay', and his father's middle name is shown as 'Steuart'. Ed.

the son of Sir George Stewart Mackenzie, F.R.S., and his wife, Mary McLeod, was born on 21 July 1811. He emigrated to New South Wales before 1830, and afterwards went to Queensland. He was elected a member of the first Queensland parliament for Burnet in 1860, and was colonial treasurer in the first cabinet until 4 August 1862. He was colonial secretary in the Macalister (q.v.) ministry from 1 February to 20 July 1866, and on 15 August 1867 became premier and colonial treasurer. He resigned on 25 November 1868, and succeeding his brother on 21 December, became a baronet and returned to Scotland. He died in London on 19 September 1873. He married in 1846, Louisa Jones of Sydney, and there was a family of one son and three daughters. Mackenzie was not a man of great ability, but he was a good organizer and administrator of some prominence in the early days of Queensland, before his succeeding to the family estates led to his leaving Australia.

Burke's Peerage, etc., 1873; C. A. Bernays, Queensland Politics During Sixty Years; The Times, 23 and 24 September 1873; J. F. Campbell, Journal and Proceedings Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. VIII, p. 262.