The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Johnson, Joseph Colin Francis
Johnson, Joseph Colin Francis, M.P., son of Henry Johnson, a solicitor in Adelaide, by his marriage with the third daughter of Colin Campbell, of Stonefield, Pine Forest, S.A., was born in Adelaide in Feb. 1848. His father removing to Victoria during the gold-digging fever, he was educated at the Geelong National Grammar School. Returning to South Australia in 1868, he was for eleven years on the staff of the South Australian Register. He then purchased the Adelaide Punch and conducted it for several years. Since 1884 he has been member for Onkaparinga in the South Australian Legislative Assembly, and was Minister of Education and of the Northern Territory from June 1887 to June 1889 in the Playford Ministry. Mr. Johnson is author of "Moses and Me," the record of a visit paid to the Mount Brown diggings in 1880.