The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Woods, Hon. John
Woods, Hon. John, M.L.A., second son of Richard Woods, of Liverpool, was born on Nov. 5th, 1822. After being trained as an engineer, he was employed in Canada and England; and landed in Melbourne in 1852, after a chequered experience at the Ovens, M'Ivor, Goulburn, Ararat and Fiery Creek diggings, during which he was a prominent exponent of miners' rights. He was returned to the Assembly in 1859 for the Crowlands district, which he represented with an interval of five years, until 1877, when he was elected for Stawell, which he represented till his death. Whilst out of Parliament, from 1865 to 1870, Mr. Woods entered the Government service, and was in charge of the works at the Malmesbury reservoir, when he was summarily dismissed on an allegation, into which inquiry was refused, that he had connived at some laches on the part of the contractors. Mr. Woods took office as Minister of Railways in the first Berry Government in August 1875, and made some sweeping changes in the tariff of charges. He retired with his colleagues in October of the same year, but was appointed to the same post in the second Berry Administration in May 1877, retiring in March 1880. Mr. Woods died in May 1892.