John Neales
Australian politician
John Bentham Neales (13 June 1806 – 31 July 1873), frequently referred to as "J. Bentham Neales" or "Bentham Neales", was a businessman and politician in the early days of South Australia, by some regarded as the "Father of Mining in South Australia".
Neales was born in Plymouth, England, the son of Elizabeth née Bentham. Both parents died when he was very young, leaving him to be brought up by an uncle. He migrated to South Australia on the Eden, arriving on 24 June 1838.
Career
Neales began business in Adelaide as a general merchant, then an auctioneer, taking over much of the business of Robert Cock. He was then appointed Government auctioneer; the first four years under the alias "Neales Bentham" to avoid confusion with W. H. Neale, another auctioneer in the city. forming the Adelaide Auction Company in 1840. He bought land at Port Lincoln, where he founded its first newspaper, the Port Lincoln Herald in 1839.
In 1841, Neales helped found the South Australian Mining Association which worked the "Wheal Gawler" silver-lead deposit at Glen Osmond then Montacute. The company later opened the copper mine at Burra, which made him a considerable fortune.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6221597. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1806, 1873, 1838 and 1840.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Neales” 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.