Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/MacKay, Angus
MACKAY, ANGUS (1824–1886), colonial journalist and politician, born at Aberdeen on 26 Jan. 1824, was son of Murdoch MacKay of the 78th highlanders. His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Macleod. His father on receiving his pension in 1827 emigrated with his family to New South Wales.
Young MacKay was educated for the presbyterian ministry at the Australian college in Sydney, and he became for a time a school-master. But he soon turned his attention to journalism, and before he was twenty years of age he was a contributor to the 'Australian Magazine' and the 'Atlas' (a paper established by Robert Lowe, afterwards Viscount Sherbrooke). In 1847 MacKay became editor of the 'Atlas,' In 1850 he migrated to Geelong in Victoria, which is at once an industrial centre and a seaside resort, and there became manager of a general business for Mr. (afterwards Sir Henry) Parkes. But the gold rush in the following year took him back to his old calling in New South Wales, and he went to the gold-fields as a special correspondent for Mr. Parkes's new radical paper 'The Empire.' In 1853 he returned to Victoria as a digger, and took a leading part in the agitation for the alleviation of miners' grievances, heading a deputation to Melbourne, and giving important evidence before the committee to inquire into the matter. A little later he became the proprietor and editor of the 'Bendigo Advertiser.' In 1879 he returned to Sydney, and launched the 'Sydney Daily Telegraph.'
Meanwhile MacKay had entered political life. He had already, in 1849, taken an active part in the agitation for the reduction of the franchise (Fifty Years in the Making of Australian History, i. 14). In 1868, after repeated invitations, he stood for and won the seat of Sandhurst Burghs, Victoria, which he represented in three successive parliaments. Two years later he was minister of mines in the ministry of Sir James McCulloch [q. v.], and resumed the post in that of James Goodall Francis [q. v.], subsequently joining to his duties those of minister of education. His speeches as a minister were always business-like, and straightforward (Victorian Parliamentary Debates, 1870, &c.) As minister for mines, he carried through the colonial parliament several measures of benefit to the mining population. By his Mining Regulation Act accidents were reduced by one half their former number. He maintained that education should be free, compulsory, and secular.
After his temporary migration to Sydney (1879–83), he was again in 1883 elected for his old constituency, and resumed residence at Sandhurst. He died there on 5 July 1886, aged 62.
MacKay was an enthusiastic sportsman, and a member of the cricket team which in 1866 opposed the first All England eleven that visited Australia (Year-nook of Australia, 1886).
He was married, and his widow, two sons, and three daughters survived him.
[Melbourne Argus, 6 July 1886; Mennell's Dict. of Australasian Biog.]