Leo Mervyn Nott was an Australian politician and a member of 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...

 between 1953 and 1968 and again between 1971 and 1973. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (NSW)

Australian Labor Party (NSW)

The Australian Labor Party , commonly known as Lang Labor, was the name given to a major breakaway of the Australian Labor Party in New South Wales that operated from 1931 to 1936....

.

Early life

Nott was born at Dunedoo, New South Wales

Dunedoo, New South Wales

Dunedoo ) is a village of 836 inhabitants situated within the Warrumbungle Shire of central western New South Wales, Australia. Dunedoo is well known to Australian travellers due to its distinctive name...

 and was the son of a farmer. His brother, Roger Nott

Roger Nott

The Hon. Roger Bede Nott was an Australian politician and a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1941 until 1961. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party and held numerous ministerial positions between 1954 and 1961...

, was a member of the Legislative Assembly between 1941 and 1961 and a minister between 1954 and 1961. He was educated to elementary level at Dunedoo Primary School and initially worked as a shearer and farm hand before becoming a sheep and wheat farmer. He was active in community organizations in the Dunedoo area including the Land Board, Hospital Board and Wheatgrowers' union. Nott was elected to Gulgong Shire Council between 1951 and 1953 and was the Shire President in 1952-53.

State Parliament

Nott was elected to the parliament as the Labor member for Mudgee

Electoral district of Mudgee

Mudgee was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales first created in 1859, partly replacing Wellington and Bligh and named after and including Mudgee. Following the abolition of Goldfields West in 1880, it elected three members simultaneously,...

 at the 1953

New South Wales state election, 1953

The 1953 New South Wales state election was held on 14 February 1953. It was conducted in single member constituencies with compulsory preferential voting and was held on boundaries created at a 1952 redistribution...

 state election. He defeated the Country Party

National Party of Australia

The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...

 member Frederick Cooke

Frederick Cooke

Frederick George Crooke was an Australian politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for a single term from 1950 until 1953 . He was a member of the Country Party....

 in an election marked by a resurgence in Labor support in rural NSW. Nott retained the seat for Labor at the next 4 elections until it was abolished in 1968

New South Wales state election, 1968

The 1968 New South Wales state election was held on 24 February 1968. It was conducted in single member constituencies with compulsory preferential voting and was held on boundaries created at a 1966 redistribution...

. Nott then retired from public life but was persuaded to stand as the Labor candidate for the seat of Burrendong

Electoral district of Burrendong

Burrendong was an electoral district of Legislative Assembly of the Australian state of New South Wales, created in 1968, partly replacing Mudgee and named after the Burrendong Dam. It was abolished in 1981.-Members for Burrendong:...

, which had replaced Mudgee, at the 1971

New South Wales state election, 1971

Elections for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly were held in the state of New South Wales, Australia, on Saturday 13 February 1971. The Liberal-Country Party coalition government led by Sir Robert Askin won a third term in office. The Labor Party opposition was led by Pat Hills.The...

 state election. At that election he defeated the sitting Country Party member Roger Wotton

Roger Wotton

Roger Corfield Anson Wotton is a former Australian politician. He was the Country Party member for Burrendong from 1968 to 1971 and from 1973 to 1981, and then for Castlereagh from 1981 to 1991 in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.Wotton was born in Ardlethan, New South Wales, and attended...

. However, the result was reversed at the next election in 1973

New South Wales state election, 1973

Elections for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly were held in the state of New South Wales, Australia, on Saturday 17 November 1973. The result was a win for the Liberal-Country Party coalition under Sir Robert Askin, which had been in office since 1965....

and Nott did not contest any further elections. He was the chairman of Labor's Country Conference between 1949 and 1952 but did not hold any other party, parliamentary or ministerial office. After leaving parliament he became a newspaper columnist.