John Grainger (politician)

John Grainger (c. 1803 – 5 December 1872) was an English real estate investor and member of the South Australian Legislative Council from February 1851 to December 1854.

He may have been the John Grainger who arrived in SA in September 1841 aboard the Lady Emma from Launceston.

He was a significant buyer of land in South Australia, particularly in the Mitcham and Goolwa areas. He was, with Edward Stephens, C. H. Bagot, G. Tinline, G. F. Aston and others, investors ("The Nobs") in the "Princess Royal mine" of Burra, South Australia, which was never profitable, by contrast with the adjoining "Monster Mine" of the South Australian Mining Association ("Snobs") that repaid its investors handsomely.

He purchased sections 1004 and 1287 in the Brownhill Creek region close to the old Mount Barker Road, where a small but profitable silver/lead/bismuth mine "Grainger Wheal" (or "Wheal Grainger") was established in 1848.

He was appointed Justice of the Peace in August 1850, then nominated for the Adelaide No. 7, (West Torrens) ward in the part-elected Legislative Council of 1851, but lost to Charles Simeon Hare. He subsequently accepted an appointment, along with Edward Castres Gwynne, John Morphett and Major Norman Campbell as a non-official (ie. without portfolio) member.

He left the colony some time before December 1856, and was named, along with George Morphett, James Philcox, Edmund Trimmer, and George Aston by one Adelaide newspaper in an article condemning certain land speculators for underhand practices, including conspiring to purchase Government land at less than market prices.

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