George Phillips (Australian politician)

George Phillips
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Carpentaria
In office 25 May 1893 – 11 April 1896
Preceded by	Edward Palmer
Succeeded by	George Sim
Personal details
Born	George Phillips 1843 Burslem, Staffordshire, England
Died	2 June 1921 (aged 77) Alderley, Queensland, Australia
Resting place	Toowong Cemetery
Nationality	English Australian
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Susan Bourner (m.1871 d.1943)
Occupation	Surveyor, Engineer

George Phillips (1843 – 2 June 1921) was a surveyor, and member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly in Australia.

Phillips was born in Burslem, Staffordshire, on October 12, 1843 to parents George Phillips, and his wife Emily Irwin (née Onge). After arriving in New South Wales on the Merlin in September 1852 he was educated at Dr William Wools Private School in Parramatta. George settled in Brisbane Queensland in 1862 at 19 years of age.

Phillips joined the Roads Department in 1862 and in 1863 shifted to the Lands Department. He accompanied William Landsborough to Burketown in 1866 explored west of Bowen and discovered and named the Diamantina River. Landsborough and Phillips founded Normanton, he surveyed the town in 1867. In 1868 he became Staff Surveyor of Kennedy, surveying the towns of Bowen, Townsville, Cardwell, Ingham and Mackay.

Whilst in Bowen, George lodged at the Victoria Hotel, John Bourner was the licensee. He married Elizabeth Susan Bourner in Bowen on 6 February 1871.

In 1879 he joined Queensland Rail as Inspector of Surveys in the Southern Division. His passion for extending railways throughout Queensland resulted in Phillips inventing and patenting in 1884 the steel railway sleeper that could be used in the Gulf Country where floods and termites made normal railway track infeasible. These sleepers are still in use on the Normanton to Croydon railway line. In 1886 he resigned from Queensland Rail and established his own practice.

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