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Doug Newton

Australian politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 3, 2025
Entity authorityQ20640822
Source-derived summary

Douglas Richard Newton (born 5 July 1950) is an Australian politician.

Newton was born at Ivanhoe to clerk Cecil James Newton and Gwendaline Clare Bowden. He attended La Trobe University, where he received a Bachelor of Science, and later Hawthorn State College for a Diploma of Education. From 1973 to 1975 he worked as a research assistant in the Victorian Forest Commission's fire research section, moving to Melbourne University's Westernport Bay Environmental Study Group from 1975 to 1978. From 1979 to 1982 he taught at Preston East Technical School. On 27 December 1980 he married fellow schoolteacher Helen Frances Eldridge; they had one daughter. A Labor Party member since 1974, he was vice-president of the Ashwood branch and directed the campaign for the federal seat of Chisholm in 1980.

In 1982 Newton was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the Labor member for Bennettswood; he was defeated in 1985.

Editorial summary

“Doug Newton” enters the record as australian politician. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Doug, Newton and Australian can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1950, 1973, 1975, 1978—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1950-07-05. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Doug, Newton and Australian.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Doug Newton” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Doug, Newton and Australian provides the most credible route into that argument.

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 Aug 3, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q20640822. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1950, 1973, 1975 and 1978.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. 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 “Doug Newton”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Doug Newton primary sources, Doug Newton archive and Doug 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 “Doug Newton”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Doug Newton” 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.