The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Miles, Hon. William
Miles, Hon. William, M.L.A., was born in 1817 at Hails Quarry, near Edinburgh, and emigrated to New South Wales in 1838. He was employed on Mr. W. H. Chapman's station on the Macleay river, until 1852, when he commenced squatting on his own account on the Dawson river, in the present colony of Queensland. He was returned to the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Maranoa in 1865, for Carnarvon in 1874, and subsequently for Darling Downs. He was Colonial Secretary in the Douglas Ministry, from March to Nov. 1877, when he was transferred to the Public Works Department; but resigned in Feb. 1878, and was succeeded by Sir Samuel Griffith, in whose first Ministry he was Secretary for Public Works and Mines from Nov. 1883 till his death on August 21st, 1887.