Martin McKenna (11 November 1832 – 7 May 1907) was an Australian brewer and politician in Victoria, Australia.

Born in Carrahill, County Kilkenny, Ireland,[1] to Patrick, a farmer, and Anastasia, née Feehan,[2] McKenna first worked as a miller for a Quaker family (though he himself was a Catholic).[3] He migrated to Melbourne, Australia in 1854, where he first tried his hand at gold mining in Ballarat, Ararat, Blackwood, and Forest Creek.[3] By 1858, he gave up on mining after a bout of typhoid fever,[1] and went into business with his brother in Malmsbury.[2] In 1859, McKenna set up the Campaspe Brewery on Ebden Street in Kyneton, in partnership with his friend William Jowett, with whom McKenna remained partnered for twenty-two years.[4]

He was a Justice of the Peace in Australia. In 1864, he was elected mayor of the borough of Kyneton, then from 1865 he was its first president as it became a shire.[1][5] He married Catherine Wheeler in 1865, with whom he would have six sons and five daughters.[2] In March 1868, he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the Kyneton Boroughs in March 1868 until his retirement in March 1874.[1]

In 1881, McKenna assumed sole ownership of the brewery, moving it to Beauchamp Street. In 1887 McKenna joined with competitor Robert Cock to form the Kyneton Brewing & Malting Co. Ltd.[4] He also became a substantial landowner, and remained a councillor of the shire of Kyenton until his death.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Morrissey, Sylvia. "McKenna, Martin (1832–1907)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University – via Australian Dictionary of Biography.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Parliament of Victoria page on Martin McKenna". Parliament of Victoria. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  3. 1 2 Chris McConville, Croppies, Celts, and Catholics: the Irish in Australia (1987), p. 42.
  4. 1 2 Keith Deutsher, The Breweries of Australia: A History (1999), p. 124.
  5. ↑ Directory for Shires and Road Boards in Victoria, 1867 (1867), p. 51.


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