 He was a member of the Victorian Legislative Council from 1878 until 1897, although he was not particularly active in politics.Clarke was born at Lovely Banks (one of his father's properties, near Jericho) in Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania), the eldest of three sons of William John Turner Clarke and his wife Eliza ("née" Dowling).Clarke senior was an early Tasmanian colonist, who acquired large pastoral properties in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and New Zealand and settled afterwards in Victoria at Rupertswood, Sunbury.