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Adrian Cruickshank

Australian politician (1936–2010)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ4684954 ↗
Source-derived summary

Adrian John Cruickshank (16 December 1936 – 21 May 2010) was an Australian politician and philanthropist. He was the National Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Murrumbidgee from 1984 to 1999.

Cruickshank was born in Hobart, Tasmania. He spent time in countries in the southern and eastern parts of the African Continent as a miner and prospector before returning to Australia to farm. In 1966, he became New South Wales State Chairman of the Young Australian Country Party, holding the position until 1968 when he was appointed to the state council, serving until 1984. He was elected to Carrathool Shire Council in 1970 and remained until 1974. He was chairman of the Rankins Springs branch of the party from 1972 to 1984.

In 1984, Cruickshank was selected as the National candidate for the state seat of Murrumbidgee, which was being vacated by sitting Labor member Lin Gordon. Cruickshank finished third on the primary votes behind Labor candidate Margaret Delves and independent Thomas Marriott, but with Liberal preferences pushed into second place and was elected the victor on Marriott's preferences, with a margin of 51.52%.

Partly due to redistributions which greatly strengthened the National Party in Murrumbidgee, Cruickshank faced no further serious challenges and was re-elected in 1988, 1991, and 1995.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Adrian Cruickshank” is australian politician (1936–2010). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Adrian, Cruickshank and Australian, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1936, 2010, 1984, 1999—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1936-12-16. For this dossier, Adrian, Cruickshank and Australian is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “australian politician (1936–2010)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4684954. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1936, 2010, 1984 and 1999.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Adrian Cruickshank”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Adrian Cruickshank primary sources, Adrian Cruickshank archive and Adrian research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Adrian Cruickshank”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Adrian Cruickshank” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.