INTRODUCTION TO EARLY VICTORIAN ELECTION STATISTICS ==================================================================================================================== The area which is now the State of Victoria was from 1788 onwards part of the British colony of New South Wales. After an abortive attempt at establishing a settlement in 1803, the area remained undisturbed until 1834, when the Henty family from Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) established a settlement at Portland. The following year two separate parties organised by John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner established a settlement at Port Phillip, which was named Melbourne in 1837. In 1836 the NSW government recognised these settlements and created the Port Phillip District, governed by officials sent from Sydney. Settlement expanded rapidly, and with it a demand for representative goverment. In 1843 the NSW government agreed that Port Phillip should elect six members to the NSW Legislative Council, which at that time was a largely advisory body. Five represented the District as a whole and one the Town of Melbourne. A second round of elections was held in 1848. But the great difficulty in travelling to and from Sydney rendered this arrangement ineffective, and from 1844 onwards there was agitation for the elevation of Port Phillip into a separate colony. In 1849 the British Government agreed to separation and the creation of the colony of Victoria. The first Victorian legislative body was the Legislative Council, which was constituted in November 1851 following the colony's separation from New South Wales. It was partly elected and partly appointed, and had limited powers. Victoria gained full responsible parliamentary government in November 1855, and the first elections for the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council were held between August and October 1856. Sources ==================================================================================================================== No official election statistics exist for Victorian elections before 1868, except for the names of members elected, which appear in the Votes and Proceedings of the Parliament. After the 1868, 1874 and 1877 Legislative Assembly elections, however, a member of Parliament moved that a return of elections results be tabled and printed, and as a result they appear in the Parliamentary Papers. Full results of the 1911 Legislative Assembly election also appear in the Parliamentary Papers, as part of a report on the introduction of preferential voting. From 1889 to 1917, the number of voters enrolled in each electoral district, and the number of votes polled by the winning candidate (but no other figures), were published in the "Votes and Proceedings" of the Legislative Assembly. Voting figures for elections before 1890 (apart from 1868, 1874 and 1877), including all elections for the Legislative Council, are taken from newspapers – mainly "The Argus" and "The Age", but also country papers. I make no claim as to the completeness, accuracy or finality of these figures. Since, however, there was no postal voting or absent voting, and no preferences to distribute, the figures published in the newspapers were final figures in the majority of cases. I verified this by checking the figures given in the Parliamentary Papers for the 1868 election against the newspaper figures. Of 37 contested seats, the newspaper figures were identical to the official figures in 22, and almost identical in other seven. In only eight were they substantially different. I also compared the figures given by Hughes and Graham for the 1892 election against the newspaper figures. Of 70 contested seats, the figures were identical in 42, almost identical in 21 and substantially different in seven. With the spread of electric telegraph lines across the colony in the 1870s, the speed and accuracy of newspaper reporting of election results were improved. From 1890 onwards, figures can be found in published works. For the Legislative Assembly, Colin A Hughes and B D Graham, “Voting for the Victoria Legislative Assembly 1890-1964" (ANU Press 1975); Colin Hughes, "Voting for the Australian State Lower Houses, 1965-1974" (ANU Press 1981); and Colin Hughes and Don Aitkin, "Voting for the Australian State Lower Houses 1975-1984" (AUNU Press 1987). For the Legislative Council, Colin Hughes and Don Aitkin, “Voting for the Australian state upper houses, 1890-1984" (ANU Press 1986). Detailed statistics for both houses, including by-elections, from the 1924 election onwards, are held by the Victorian Parliamentary Library. In addition, the "Votes and Proceedings" of the Legislative Assembly gave full results for all Assembly elections (though not for by-elections) from 1920 to 1973, except for 1929 and 1932. Where possible, I have used the official figures in preference to Hughes, Graham and Aitken. All the sources, however, contain errors, and cross-checking the offical figures against the published figures in Hughes, Graham and Aitken enables some of these to be eliminated. No doubt I have made many of my own. Biographies of members are taken from the website of the Victorian Parliament, supplmented by newspaper and other sources. Legislative Assembly elections ==================================================================================================================== Until 1877 Legislative Assembly elections took place in stages across a month, allowing candidates defeated at one electorate to stand again elsewhere. For this period electorates are shown in alphabetical order, with the dates of nomination and polling shown. Until Victoria introduced the secret ballot in 1859, elections were conducted in the same fashion as House of Commons elections in Britain. On nomination day, voters would gather at an appointed place and vote for candidates by show of hands. The returning officer then declared a candidate or candidates elected. Any six electors could then demand a secret ballot, which would generally be held one or two weeks later. In seats where no ballot took place, the successful candidate is shown as having been returned unopposed, even if there were other candidates on nomination day. In seats electing more than one member, voters could cast as many votes as there were members to be elected (ie, in a three-member seat, each voter could vote for up to three candidates). But since they could vote for only one candidate if they chose (this was called plumping), it is not possible to determine how many voters cast votes in these seats. There were no political parties early in this period. Candidates generally stood as supporters or opponents of the incumbent ministry, but allegiances were often very transient. By the 1870s there were recognised liberal and conservative parties, but these were almost entirely parliamentary followings rather than parties in the modern sense. For earlier elections, Members (and sometimes other candidates) are classified as Ministerialists or Oppositionists, according to lists published in the newspapers. This classification should be treated with caution, since the papers had loyalties of their own, and in any case ministries rose and fell with great frequency. Until 1914 a member accepting a ministerial office (technically an office of profit under the Crown) had to resign his seat and seek re-election. This, together with the greater fluidity of the political system (and the tendency of members to become insolvent), led to very frequent by-elections. In the First Parliament (1856-59), there were 45 by-elections. Between the 1868 and 1871 elections, there were six by-elections for the seat of Ballarat West. Fortunately, tables of writs issued and returned were published in the Government Gazette. Legislative Council elections ==================================================================================================================== Until 1882 Legislative Council elections took place in stages across a month, allowing candidates defeated at one electorate to stand again elsewhere. For this period electorates are shown in alphabetical order, with the dates of nomination and polling shown. From 1856 to 1881, Victoria was divided into six Legislative Council Provinces, each having five members. Legislative Councillors were elected for ten-year terms. At the 1856 election, each Province elected five members, with the first member elected in each province getting a ten-year term, the second an eight-year term, and so on, to the fifth elected, who got a two-year term. Thus one MLC from each province would face re-election every two years. From 1881 to 1904, Victoria was divided into 14 Provinces, each electing three members for six-year terms (for a total of 42 members), so that each Province elected one member every two years. In 1889 the Council was enlarged to 48 members, with the six largest Provinces each electing an extra member. From 1904 onwards, Victoria was divided into 17 Provinces, each electing two members for six-year terms (for a total of 34 members). The number of Provinces was increased to 18 (electing 36 members) in 1967, and to 22 (electing 44 members) in 1976. In 2006 a new system was introduced: Victoria was divided into eight Regions, each electing five members (for a total of 40) at every election by proportional representation. Ministerial positions ==================================================================================================================== All ministerial positions held by members of both houses are shown. For the Legislative Assembly, these are shown for each Parliament, with the date of the opening of the new Parliament as the starting point. Thus for the First Parliament ministerial offices are shown between 21 October 1856 (the opening of the First Parliament) and 13 October 1959 (the opening of the Second Parliament). For the Legislative Council, whose members served overlapping ten-year terms until 1882, it is necessary to chose an arbitrary date. I have decided to take as the starting point the date of the issuing of writs for the biennial Council election. Thus for the 1858-60 Council term, the starting date is 31 August 1858, when the first writ for the 1858 Council election was issued. From 1882 onwards, when all Legislative Council elections were held on the same say, I have used polling day. The head of each ministry is identified as "Premier", although this term had no legal basis until 1936. In the 19th century the term Prime Minister was also commonly used. Before 1935 the Premier always had another portfolio for which he was paid a salary: usually Chief Secretary, but sometimes Treasurer or Attorney-General. After 1936 the Premiership was a salaried position, but nearly all Premiers have held additional portfolios.