Donald Macdonell (Australian politician)

Donald Macdonell (1862 – 26 October 1911) was an Australian politician.

Born at Stuart Mill near St Arnaud, Victoria, to Scottish-born farmer and shearer Alexander Macdonell, he helped on his father's farm as a child and moved to New South Wales in 1886, being an early member of the Australasian Shearers' Union. He played a leading party in the 1891 strike, during which time he was in Queensland, and he helped to draft the rule for the Australian Workers' Union (AWU) in 1894, in which year he became secretary of the Shearers' Union's Bourke branch and a member of the Australian Labor Party. He was general secretary of the AWU from 1900 to 1911. In 1901 he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the Labor member for Cobar, serving until 1911; he was Minister for Agriculture and Colonial Secretary from 1910 to 1911. Macdonell died in Melbourne in 1911.

References

Parliament of New South Wales
Preceded by William Spence	Member for Cobar 1901–1911	Succeeded by Charles Fern
Political offices
Preceded by William Wood	Colonial Secretary 1910–1911	Succeeded by Fred Flowers
Preceded by John Perry	Minister for Agriculture 1910–1911	Succeeded by John Treflé
Trade union offices
Preceded by William Spence	General Secretary of the Australian Workers' Union 1900 – 1911	Succeeded by Tom White