# Charles Frederick Adermann

Charles Frederick Adermann (3 AUG 1896 – 9 MAY 1979); child of Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Adermann and Emilie Johanna Luise Litzow; born in Vernor, Queensland, Australia; died in Dalby, Queensland, Australia.

**Lifespan:** 3 AUG 1896 – 9 MAY 1979

## Parents
- [Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Adermann](/p/carl-friedrich-wilhelm-adermann-11478.md) (father)
- [Emilie Johanna Luise Litzow](/p/emilie-johanna-luise-litzow-11469.md) (mother)

## Spouses
- _unknown partner_ — m. 7 APR 1926

## Timeline
- 3 AUG 1896 — **Born** at Vernor, Queensland, Australia
- FROM 1925 TO 1931 — **Chairman, Queensland Peanut Marketing Board** at Queensland, Australia — First term as chairman of the Peanut Board, formed by South Burnett growers under the Primary Products Pools Act 1922-23 after a sharp fall in the 1924 peanut price. Under his chairmanship the board treated, stored and sold the annual crop on behalf of growers through a compulsory collective marketing system.
- FROM 1931 — **Occupation (Peanut farmer)** at Wooroolin, Queensland, Australia — Worked on his parents' farm at Wooroolin after leaving state school at thirteen, studying farm management by correspondence, and from 1931 worked his own farm in the South Burnett district. Peanuts had been taken up by local farmers as an alternative cash crop to maize. Even as a minister he liked to spend as much time as possible in the paddocks of his farm near Kingaroy.
- FROM 1934 TO 1952 — **Chairman, Queensland Peanut Marketing Board** at Queensland, Australia — Second and much longer term as chairman of the Peanut Marketing Board, continuing for nine years after his election to federal parliament in 1943. In 1949 Arthur Calwell alleged in the House that he had used the chairmanship to seek reclassification of his own third-grade peanuts as first grade; Adermann denied the allegation and Prime Minister Chifley declined his request for a formal inquiry.
- FROM 1938 — **Sunday school radio broadcaster, 4SB** at Kingaroy, Queensland, Australia — Broadcast a popular children's Sunday school session on Kingaroy radio station 4SB under the name Uncle John, beginning in 1938 and continuing until the last year of his life. A man of deep religious faith, he was president of the Queensland and federal conferences of the Churches of Christ.
- FROM 1939 TO 1946 — **Kingaroy Shire Council** at Kingaroy, Queensland, Australia — Served on the Kingaroy Shire Council for seven years, alongside chairing the local wartime patriotic fund. The Parliamentary Handbook records him as chairman of the shire council over the same years, where the Australian Dictionary of Biography and Wikipedia describe him only as a councillor; the two accounts are not reconciled here.
- FROM 21 AUG 1943 TO 10 DEC 1949 — **Member for Maranoa, Australian House of Representatives** at Queensland, Australia — Won Maranoa for the Country Party at the 1943 federal election, taking the seat from the sitting Labor member Frank Baker. His was the only non-Labor gain at an election that otherwise saw a pronounced national swing to the Curtin government. He was re-elected in 1946 with a swing of over ten per cent, and transferred to the new seat of Fisher in 1949.
- FROM 10 DEC 1949 TO 2 NOV 1972 — **Member for Fisher, Australian House of Representatives** at Queensland, Australia — Moved to the newly created seat of Fisher at the 1949 election and held it at the following eight elections, being returned unopposed in 1955. He retired prior to the 1972 general election after twenty-nine years in the House, and was succeeded in Fisher by his son. He fought for an improved wool marketing scheme and greater Commonwealth extension service grants to encourage improved agricultural techniques.
- FROM 22 FEB 1950 TO 1958 — **Chairman of Committees, Australian House of Representatives** at Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia — Elected unopposed as Chairman of Committees, the deputy speakership, after the Menzies coalition took government, and held the office for eight years. He twice acted as Speaker during Archie Cameron's absences: while Cameron was in London for the October 1950 reopening of the House of Commons chamber, and for five and a half months from August 1955 during Cameron's illness. Labor opposed several of his re-elections to the chair. He left the office on appointment to the ministry after the 1958 election.
- FROM 10 DEC 1958 TO 16 OCT 1967 — **Minister for Primary Industry** at Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia — Appointed Minister for Primary Industry in the Menzies ministry, returning the portfolio to the Country Party, and admitted to cabinet on 4 February 1960. He was prominent in his party's successful push for further subsidies, grants and other assistance to rural producers, and fought repeatedly in cabinet for an improved wool marketing scheme. By 1966 he stood fifth in cabinet seniority under Harold Holt. He stood down from the portfolio in 1967 at John McEwen's urging and in recognition of his wife's poor health, and was succeeded by Doug Anthony.
- FROM 11 DEC 1963 TO 8 DEC 1966 — **Deputy Leader of the Australian Country Party** at Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia — Elected deputy leader of the federal parliamentary Country Party on the retirement of Sir Charles Davidson, serving under John McEwen. McEwen, concerned about a leadership succession and unwilling to be followed by a man four years his senior, pushed him out of the deputy leadership after the 1966 election in favour of the younger Doug Anthony.
- 1966 — **Title (Privy Counsellor)** — Appointed a member of Her Majesty's Privy Council at a ceremony in Buckingham Palace, entitling him to the style The Right Honourable. The appointment marked the peak of his political career, when he stood fifth in cabinet seniority under Prime Minister Harold Holt.
- 12 JUN 1971 — **Title (KBE)** — Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, appointed in the year before his retirement from parliament.
- 1979 — **Buried** at Taabinga, Queensland, Australia — Interred at Taabinga cemetery near Kingaroy. The funeral was attended by Doug Anthony as acting prime minister and Joh Bjelke-Petersen as premier of Queensland.
- 9 MAY 1979 — **Died** at Dalby, Queensland, Australia

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