Obituaries Australia

Edgar Graham, n.d.

from Pastoral Review and Graziers' Record, 18 December 1957

The Hon. Edgar Hugh Graham, M.L.A., Minister for Agriculture and Food Production, and member for Wagga Wagga in the New South Wales Parliament, died on 13th November from a heart attack. He is survived by his wife, daughter (Mrs. J. White), and two grandchildren.

Mr. Graham was born in 1897 on a mixed farm at Lake Albert, near Wagga, and attended the Lake Albert and Wagga District schools. He worked as a youth on his father's farm and later became the proprietor of a large butchery. Subsequently, he returned to primary production and founded what became one of the largest and most successful pig studs in Australia—Kinilibah. He was a successful exhibitor of pigs at leading agricultural shows and had the distinction of having judged at every Royal Show in Australia. He subsequently disposed of his pig stud and at the time of his death raised Poll Herefords and fat lambs on his property, Whyanawah, near Wagga, on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River.

Mr. Graham was elected to Parliament in 1941, and became Minister for Agriculture in 1944. In 1953 when the drive for greater food production was given a high priority, he was appointed to the new portfolio of Food Production. He was in his 14th year as Minister for Agriculture, a term which is an all-time record in the portfolio for N.S.W. and an Australian record term as Minister for Agriculture as well. Mr. Graham was highly regarded and respected both in Parliament and outside, and he has many achievements to his credit in the legislative field. Probably the most important of these was the establishment of four new country killing works at key centres in the State—at Goulburn, Wagga, Dubbo, and Gunnedah. These works are amongst the most modern in the world and cost in the vicinity of £500,000 each. He was also responsible for the introduction of artificial insemination on a commercial basis, the purchase of top quality stock from overseas, the establishment of the Wagga Agricultural College, the increased accommodation at Hawkesbury Agricultural College, and the decentralisation of agricultural extension services.