John Wagner was born in Canada in 1827. He emigrated in 1852 via California to Melbourne. During his travels, he recognized the difficulty of transport over long distances and in Australia developed a line of quality coaches and travel routes.
He became a partner with Cyrus Hewitt of Hewitt & Co. and later joined A.W. Robertson to form Robertson & Wagner to purchase coach lines in Victoria, Australia.
John was also a partner in Cobb & Co., another coach line service, and held an interest in the Mt. Morgan Gold Mining Company which made him very wealthy.