Randolph Bedford


Randolph Bedford was an Australian poet, novelist, short story writer and Queensland state politician.

Early life

Bedford was born in Camperdown, Sydney, the son of Alfred Bedford, who migrated from Yorkshire, England in 1859 and obtained work as a house painter.
He was educated at the Newtown state school. At the age of 14, he worked with a Sydney solicitors firm as an office-boy. At 16 years of age he worked in the western district of New South Wales, shooting rabbits. He carried copies of Carlyle's French Revolution, Shakespeare and the Bible. He worked for a year as a clerk in Hay and joined up with a repertory company run by Edmund Duggan, in Wagga Wagga.

Literary career

A comprehensive bibliography of Bedford's work was published in 1982.
With Australian authors Henry Lawson and Victor Daley et al., he was a member of the elite Dawn and Dusk Club.

Political career

In 1917, Bedford entered the Queensland Legislative Council, on a platform to secure its abolition. In 1923, he was elected as Labor candidate to the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Warrego. In 1937, he unsuccessfully ran to represent the Division of Maranoa in the Australian House of Representatives.
He was an ardent Protectionist, and decried the way the wealth of Australia was exported to pay for shoddy goods which could have been produced locally.
Bedford died on 7 July 1941 and was cremated at Mount Thompson crematorium.

Plays

Novels

Short Story
A Samaritan of the Riverine, in [Adventure Magazine, vol 1 No 4, 1911)

Non-fiction

  • ''Explorations in Civilization''

Autobiography

  • ''Naught to Thirty-Three''