Joseph Francis Cullen Australian politician, was a Member of Parliament in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 and Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

.

Born in Jamberoo, New South Wales

Jamberoo, New South Wales

Jamberoo is a small picturesque village approx 11 km inland from Kiama on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia in the Municipality of Kiama. At the 2006 census, Jamberoo had a population of 935 people...

 around 1849, Joseph Cullen was the son of farmer John Cullen and Rebecca Clinton. One of his brothers, William Cullen, would become Chief Justice of New South Wales

Chief Justice of New South Wales

The Chief Justice of New South Wales is the senior judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the highest ranking judicial officer in the Australian state of New South Wales. The Chief Justice is both the judicial head of the Supreme Court as well as the administrative head...

. Joseph Cullen was educated at state schools before attending Camden College

Camden College (Congregational Church school)

Camden College was an independent, Congregational Union of Australia, day and boarding school for boys and theological college for the training of Christian ministers in Sydney from 1864 until 1974. -History:...

 in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

. On 18 April 1878 he married Annie Butler, with whom he would have one son and two daughters.

Cullen became congregational

Congregational church

Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

 minister

Minister of religion

In Christian churches, a minister is someone who is authorized by a church or religious organization to perform functions such as teaching of beliefs; leading services such as weddings, baptisms or funerals; or otherwise providing spiritual guidance to the community...

 for Windsor

Windsor, New South Wales

Windsor is a town in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Windsor is located in the local government area of the City of Hawkesbury. It sits on the Hawkesbury River, on the north-western outskirts of the Sydney metropolitan area. At the 2006 census, Windsor had a population of...

, North Sydney

North Sydney, New South Wales

North Sydney is a suburb and commercial district on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. North Sydney is located 3 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of North Sydney...

, North Willoughby

North Willoughby, New South Wales

North Willoughby is a suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. North Willoughby is located 9 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Willoughby...

 and Watson's Bay

Watsons Bay, New South Wales

Watsons Bay is a harbourside, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Watsons Bay is located 11 km north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Woollahra....

. He resigned in 1886, and shortly afterwards purchased and edited a North Sydney newspaper. In 1889 he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly

New South Wales Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...

 seat of St Leonards

Electoral district of St Leonards

St Leonards was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, originally created in 1859, partly replacing Sydney Hamlets, and named after the Sydney suburb of St Leonards. It extended from North Sydney to Broken Bay, including the Northern Beaches...

 on a Free Trade

Free Trade Party

The Free Trade Party which was officially known as the Australian Free Trade and Liberal Association, also referred to as the Revenue Tariff Party in some states and renamed the Anti-Socialist Party in 1906, was an Australian political party, formally organised between 1889 and 1909...

 ticket. He held the seat until the election of 1894, when he won the seat of Willoughby

Electoral district of Willoughby

Willoughby is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is represented by Gladys Berejiklian of the Liberal Party of Australia.-History:...

. The following year he lost Willoughby in an election.

In 1904, Cullen emigrated to Western Australia, spending two years on the Eastern Goldfields

Eastern Goldfields

The Eastern Goldfields is a figurative area used in speech to describe a region of Western Australia.-Name:The name is derived in two parts from, Eastern in relation to its location from Perth and Goldfields as the name suggests comes from the mining of Gold in the region...

. Settling at Katanning

Katanning, Western Australia

Katanning is a town located 277 km south east of Perth, Western Australia on the Great Southern Highway. At the 2006 census, Katanning had a population of 3,808.-History:...

, he was owner and editor of the Great Southern Herald from 1906. On 4 October 1909, he was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Council

Western Australian Legislative Council

The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the Legislative Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state...

 in a by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

 for the South East Province. He held the seat until his death at Katanning on 31 March 1917.