The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Burrowes, Hon. Robert
Burrowes, Hon. Robert, M.L.A., formerly Minister of Mines, Victoria, was born at Perth, a township near Ottawa, Canada, in 1827. After experience in the lumber trade he left Canada in 1852, and arrived in Melbourne in April 1853. He almost immediately afterwards left for the Bendigo (Sandhurst) diggings, where he took an active part in creating Sandhurst municipality, and was chairman of the local council on the occasion of railway communication being established between Melbourne and Sandhurst in 1862. He was returned to the Victorian Assembly for Sandhurst in Jan. 1866, and held the seat till his defeat in May 1877. In 1880 he was re-elected, and still sits for the same constituency. From August 1881 to March 1883 he was Minister of Mines in the O'Loghlen Government. Mr. Burrowes married in 1858 Sarah Ellen, daughter of P. Vickery.