John Bush is another of the early Gold Commissioners who has been difficult to identify because of a relatively common name and the short length of his Victorian Public Service career. As I have no information about him other than his six months as an Assistant Gold Commissioner, I can only say that he “flourished 1854” and was a “gentleman” (Esquire).

Bush was appointed Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Gold Fields [Assistant Gold Commissioner] on 21 March 1854 [01] (effective 20 March 1854 [02]) and a Magistrate for the Colony of Victoria and its dependencies (Justice of the Peace) on 15 May 1854 [03]. Augustus Woodley Bernal, Charles Algernon Pridham – also recently-appointed Gold Commissioners – and George Murray Perry were also appointed Magistrates in the same notice.

Bush resigned on 8 September 1854 after less than six months [04]. A search of Trove for 1854 only returns one reference – the report of his appointment.

There are three John Bushes in the Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria (BDM) database who died before 1910 and would have been old enough in 1854. One died in Dunolly in 1892 at the age of 67, so would have been 29 in 1854. Another died in Horsham in 1899 at the age of 84, so would have been 39 in 1854. A third – John Frederick Bush – died in 1882 at the age of 63, so would have been 35 in 1854. None seem to have a death notice or obituary on Trove .

There was a John Bush who married Anne Spencer in Victoria in 1858 [05]. I only purchase a BDM certificate when absolutely necessary to try to resolve a difficult point of research. This project would become too expensive otherwise. I considered purchasing the marriage certificate for this John Bush to be worthwhile. Unfortunately, the information on it seems to indicate that this was not our John Bush. The marriage was on 19 January 1858, at the Trinity Church of England, Pentridge (Coburg, not the prison). This John Bush was 31 (so born c1827), a Gold Digger from Ararat, born in Yelland, Devonshire. This is all still possible for our John Bush, but this one was the son of William Bush, a labourer. This makes it unlikely. Our John Bush was an esquire in his appointment and would have to have been considered a “gentleman” by career, background, and breeding and so unlikely to have been the son of a labourer. Anne (Ann) Bush née Spencer died only a year later, in 1859.

There is no guarantee, of course, that our John Bush married or died in Victoria.

A search on Trove for “Commissioner Bush” revealed an 1872 article in The Ballarat Star. The article reported on:

Now, if this is referring to our John Bush, the “early 1854” must be incorrect as Bush was only a Gold Commissioner from March to September 1854. The reference to “Eureka” is certainly plausible as Eureka was one of the gold fields in the Ballarat district and would have had an Assistant Gold Commissioner assigned. This is months before the Eureka Stockade.

The Eureka Encyclopaedia [07] has an entry about a Mr Bush who was:

This is interesting, though the The Eureka Encyclopaedia does not provide a source. John Dewes (D’ewes) was the Police Magistrate at Ballarat during 1854 and was dismissed after the Eureka Stockade. He was rumoured at the time to have been a part-owner of the Eureka Hotel, though others say he wasn’t. Assuming that The Eureka Encyclopaedia is not correct about this Bush being George Bush, could this be our John Bush? More digging is required.