Andrew Fisher was a coal-miner and union organiser in Ayrshire (Scotland) before emigrating to the colony of Queensland in 1885.
A founding member of the Labor Party in Queensland, Fisher was elected to that colony’s Legislative Assembly in 1893 as member for Gympie. Fisher was a staunch federalist, campaigning actively for the ‘YES’ vote in the 1899 referendum. He subsequently won the seat of Wide Bay at the first federal election in 1901, and held it until he retired from politics in 1915.
Fisher served as was Minister for Trade and Customs in Chris Watson’s Labor government in 1904, and led the Labor Party in parliament after Watson’s retirement as leader in 1907. Fisher served as Prime Minister (and Treasurer) three times, from November 1908 to June 1909, April 1910 to June 1913 and from September 1914 to October 1915.