James Nimmo was born in 1912. He attended
Geelong College and then the
University of Melbourne. Whilst in his final year of university (studying economics), he worked for
Lyndhurst Giblin as a research secretary. Moving to Canberra in 1935 to take up a temporary appointment at the Bureau of Census and Statistics. He was awarded a permanent position in 1938, after a short period of study at the
London School of Economics. His career over the next couple of decades included a period of time at the Rationing Commission and then later in the
Treasury. Between 1960 and 1963, Nimmo was a Deputy Secretary in the Prime Minister's Department. Then from 1963 to 1973, he was
Secretary of the
Department of Housing. In December 1973, Nimmo was appointed a Member of the
Commonwealth Grants Commission. Nimmo was Commissioner of an Inquiry into Transport to and from Tasmania. He submitted the
Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Transport to and from Tasmania in 1976, and it became known as the
Nimmo Report. Nimmo died at the Royal Canberra Hospital on 15 December 1984. ==Awards==