Prominent in local politics, he was elected as a councillor at the foundation of the Municipality of Hotham (North Melbourne) and twice chosen as mayor. He was himself a successful exhibitor at exhibitions throughout Australia. He was an active member of the Chamber of Manufactures and its president, and a commissioner of the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880 and the Centennial Exhibition in 1888. With his ironworks at North Melbourne Buncle was held in great esteem by his contemporaries. The knowledge and experience of the Australian implement makers had a wider application than was apparent at the time because the conditions they faced were in many ways similar to those experienced in extensions of the wheat belt in the United States, Canada and Argentina. He became a prominent member of that extraordinary group of men whose inventions put Australia in a notable place in the history of the evolution of 'extensive' farming techniques in the nineteenth century. Gradually he turned to the design and construction of agricultural implements and machinery with which his name is chiefly associated. As the flurry of the gold decade subsided he settled to his engineering and contracting interests, supplying the ironwork for several large bridges in Melbourne, including the Johnston Street bridge across the Yarra, and for other parts of Victoria. Melbourne then had an acute shortage of skilled tradesmen and Buncle was able to turn his great manual dexterity and adaptability to good account, finding profitable employment as patternmaker, woodturner and carver, signwriter, general engineer and contractor, as well as selling hardware as a sideline. Six months later he left the flourishing Langlands to enter business on his own account. Soon afterwards he was promoted general foreman of the foundry. He had no difficulty in obtaining a position at Langlands' foundry and quickly demonstrated his versatility amongst the tasks he performed with credit was hanging the peal of bells at St James's Old Cathedral. On 18 July 1846 at Newton in Makerfield, Lancashire, he married Mary Ann, daughter of William Binns, in whose Vulcan foundry he was working of their eleven children three sons and five daughters survived infancy.īuncle arrived in Melbourne in December 1852 to find the town dominated by the gold rush atmosphere in which cupidity and economic instability prevailed. For six years he was chief draftsman and designer at the London and Northwestern Railway workshops at Crewe, Cheshire. After education at private schools in Edinburgh, he served apprenticeships in engineering and pianoforte-making in Edinburgh and Lancashire later he worked with several firms designing steam engines and locomotives. John Buncle (1822?-1889), manufacturer and inventor, was born in Edinburgh, son of John Buncle, engineer, and his wife Elizabeth, née Wood.
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