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User:Ubersejanus/Margaret Clement

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History

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Charles La Trobe, superintendent of the Port Phillip District of the Colony of New South Wales was appointed the inaugural lieutenant-governor of the new Colony of Victoria on its separation from New South Wales on 1 July 1851. However, he remained subject to Sir Charles FitzRoy who was raised to the position of Governor-General of New South Wales in an early attempt at federalism among the Australian colonies. FitzRoy exercised little authority over the other colonies, particularly after Henry Grey, 3rd Earl Grey resigned as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in February 1852.[1]

La Trobe had extensive power as lieutenant-governor, able to veto bills passed by the Legislative Council and was responsible for initiating all financial legislation.[2] Within weeks of the new colony being proclaimed, gold was discovered in Ballarat.[3] At the same time as he was called upon to establish the institutions of the new colony, La Trobe also needed to rapidly and drastically expand the area controlled by the new government. Like La Trobe, the other officials of the new government were inexperienced and there were many missteps in the early days of the government as they attempted to manage they tens of thousands of people arriving in the colony in search of gold. [4] The new colony was well-funded from the start, and invested significantly in developing the still-new towns in Melbourne, Ballarat, and the rest of the colony. However, infrastructure remained lacking throughout the gold rush period, and the government was running a budget deficit by the time La Trove returned to the UK.[5][6]

Swearing Allegiance to the Southern Cross by Charles Doudiet, 1854

Despite a last-minute attempt to instead obtain command of a ship when the Crimean War broke out, Captain Sir Charles Hotham relieved La Trobe as lieutenant-governor in June 1854. He attempted to increase government revenue and get the government out of debt by enforcing the mining licences that had been instituted on the goldfields, but at the same time extended political rights to the miners.[7] Hotham was an extremely authoritarian governor for a Crown Colony that was about to be granted responsible government, perhaps influenced by the Eureka Rebellion breaking out within months of his arrival in the colony.[8]

After the nascent rebellion was put down by elements of the 12th Regiment of Foot, the 40th Regiment of Foot and Victoria Police, Hotham had 13 of the miners tried for high treason, however the jury refused to convict them.[9] and he was rebuked by the new colonial secretary, Lord John Russell for mishandling the prosecutions.[10]

Responsible Government

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Hotham was appointed as Victoria's first governor following passage of the Victoria Constitution Act 1855 by the imperial parliament. This act formally approved the constitution that had been written by the Legislative Council early in 1854 and established the Legislative Assembly of Victoria, which would begin its first sitting in 1856.[11] When the dispatches returned the approved constitution, they included a provision that the new constitution would not take effect for three months after arrival. Hotham declared that there would be no change to the governance of the state until that time, putting himself and his executive council in conflict with the Legislative Council who believed that the new governor was accountable to legislative oversight. However, this disagreement was short-lived, with Hotham passing away on 31 December 1855.[12]

Following the unexpected death of Hotham, the government of Victoria was administered by Major-General Sir Edward Macarthur for most of 1856. The eldest son of the infamous John Macarthur commanded the British Army forces in the colony and had been appointed administrator.[13] Macarthur oversaw the first elections for the Legislative Assembly during the 11 months before the new governor arrived and was well-regarded by the people of Melbourne for his administration.[14]

1865 Supply Crisis

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In 1865, the government led by James McCulloch announced, and then immediately started collecting, a new tariff. After several months of the Legislative Council refusing to pass the tariff, it was added to a supply bill. Under the colonial constitution, the Legislative Council had no power to amend supply bills and so refused to pass it in its entirety.[15] The first Australian supply crisis begun. Treasurer George Verdon attempted to secure loans to fund the government, but was rejected by all except the London Chartered Bank of Australia. The other banks in the colony published their concerns about the power of the governor and ministry to obtain new loans in the absence of supply, however the influence of their only Victorian director, premier James McCulloch meant that the London Chartered Bank immediately extended a loan of £40,000.[16]

When the government was unable to service the loan the next month, the bank sued for the debt in the Supreme Court and the government offered no defence. After receiving the judgement of the court, the government advised governor Sir Charles Darling to authorise payment for the loan and the bank's costs from the consolidated revenue fund without parliamentary approval, a process that was repeated on a monthly basis.[17] McCulloch took the issue to the electorate by dissolving the Legislative Assembly, and after reelection he continued to try and force the Legislative Council to endorse the new tariff.[18] Various attempts to pass the tariff were rejected by the Legislative Council until the ministry resigned in March 1866,[19] however the Protectionist party held a majority of seat in the Assembly and McCulloch was soon asked to form a new ministry.[20]

Governor Darling's handling of the situation was poorly received by the people of Victoria, newspapers across Australia,[21] and by the colonial office in London. He was recalled in April 1866 and Major General George Carey assumed the administration of the colony until the new governor arrived in August.[22][23] Darling was widely condemned for allowing the colonial government to so grievously exceed the bounds of constitutional propriety for so long,[24] however, his recall led to a compromise that saw the deadlock resolved, supply restored, and a new tariff bill passed.[17] However, the crisis was not yet quite over.

The Victorian government attempted to gift £20,000 to Lady Darling as compensation for the early termination of Sir Charles' appointment. It was not considered appropriate that the payment be made to Sir Charles directly, however the colonial office was not of a mind to allow the obviously blind and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon sent messages to both the Darlings and the Assembly that the would not be permitted so long as he remained in the Colonial Service.[25] The new governor, Sir John Manners-Sutton, had directions from colonial secretary Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle not to approve any such payment,[17] so Sir Charles submitted his resignation, but Manners-Sutton was able to convince Newcastle to allow Sir Charles to withdraw it the following year,[26] and he received a pension from the imperial government until he died in 1870.[20]

1878 Supply Crisis

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At the May 1877 election, with the powerful backing of the Melbourne Age, Graham Berry's liberals won a huge majority in the Assembly and he returned to office at the head of a radical ministry. Berry promised that if the Legislative Council, which was elected on a limited property-based franchise, blocked his program, it would be "dealt with according to its deserts." Given that there was no mechanism in the Victorian Constitution to override the Council, this was taken by conservatives to be a threat of revolutionary violence.

Among other priorities, Berry's government sought to pay members of the Legislative Assembly, a proposal borne of the desire to facilitate middle and working class representation. It was rejected by the Legislative Council, and then tacked to the annual appropriations bill, which was again rejected.[27] After unlawfully sacking over 400 public servants, including magistrates, judges, goldfields commissioners and coroners on what became known as Black Wednesday, Berry's government plunged the state into financial trouble.[17] In an attempt to restore stability, Berry advised governor Sir George Bowen to authorise payments based solely on the approval of the Legislative Council.[28] Bowen authorised these payments after obtaining advice from the attorney-general, but he was reprimanded by the colonial office for approving the payments and allowing other illegal actions of Berry and his ministers.[29]

The Black Wednesday sackings were cancelled,[30] and Bowen was recalled to be assigned as the new Governor of Mauritius, an unimportant backwater Crown Colony that did not have responsible government.[31] Bowen, who had expected to be appointed governor of New South Wales following his time in Victoria, regretted his involvement in the crisis, writing the following year:

My reluctant consent, purely on constitutional grounds, to these dismissals … has damaged my further reputation and my career to a degree that I shall never recover. It will never be forgotten either in England or in the Colony.[32]

Post-Federation

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Following Federation in 1901, the Victorian governors spent the next several decades in a peculiar position. With Melbourne the new nation's temporary capital, John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun and former governor of Victoria, returned to Government House as Governor-General of Australia. His successors remained in residence until Sir Issac Issacs, the first Australian appointed to the position began to live in Canberra full-time in 1930. During this time, the now-state governors resided at Stonnington Mansion.[33]

In 1903, the Victorian parliament first debated abolishing the governor's office on grounds of duplication and economy. Further debates occurred in 1904, 1917, and 1920; the last including a motion that fell only four votes short of calling for the abolition of the office. Governor Sir Arthur Stanley shared their views, requesting an early recall to allow the appointment of a replacement who believed in the utility of his office in 1917. He was convinced by the state government to remain in place until 1920, as ministers feared that public opinion could force them to leave the administration of the state in the hands of an Australian lieutenant-governor.[34]

Later 20th Century

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In 1967, governor Sir Rohan Delacombe was petitioned to exercise the Royal prerogative of mercy on behalf of the Queen to commute the execution of Ronald Ryan by four of the jurors in the case who had submitted a guilty verdict in the belief that capital punishment had been abolished in Victoria, and thought Ryan's sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment. Premier Henry Bolte was determined Ryan should hang. Delacombe called a meeting with the Victorian cabinet, at which it was unanimously agreed that the execution should proceed. Ryan was hanged on 3 February 1967, the last person in Australia to be executed.[35]

In 1985, as the Australia Acts 1986 were being developed, Victorian Governor Rear Admiral Sir Brian Murray was embroiled in a scandal.[36] Against the advice of Premier John Cain, Murray had accepted free travel for himself and his wife and was caught up in a police investigation into the use of free airfares by police officers and other state officials.[37] The Premier sought for Elizabeth II to remove Murray, but the British Government was unwilling to act, fearing to appear anachronistic on the eve of the Australia Acts 1986. Cain's attempts to communicate with the Foreign Office were also complicated by the Governor being the traditional channel of communication. Sir John Leahy, the British High Commissioner, declined to carry messages on the grounds that he was not accredited to the state governments. Instead, messages were conveyed by the Australian High Commissioner in the United Kingdom, and deputy premier Robert Fordham travelled to London to meet with British ministers. The Foreign Secretary requested legal advice from his department as to the mechanisms of dismissing an Australian state governor, but was ultimately not required to act on the state government's request when Murray submitted his resignation under pressure from the state and Commonwealth governments.[38] There was some enthusiasm amongst the state government for appointing Charles, Prince of Wales to replace Murray as governor, but this was quietly discouraged before a formal request could be made.[39]

  1. ↑ Ward, John M. "Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy (1796–1858)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 16 October 2025.
  2. ↑ Cite error: The named reference australian constitutions act was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ↑ "Ballarat Diggins, September 6, 1851". Geelong Advertiser. Vol. XI, , no. 1565. Victoria, Australia. 9 September 1851. p. 2. Retrieved 16 October 2025 – via National Library of Australia.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  4. ↑ Cite error: The named reference adb-latrobe was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ↑ Bate, Weston (1978). Lucky City: The First Generation at Ballarat: 1851-1901. Melbourne University Press. ISBN 9780522841572.
  6. ↑ Blainey, Geoffrey (1963). The Rush That Never Ended: A History of Australian Mining. Melbourne University Press. ISBN 9780522850093. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  7. ↑ Cite error: The named reference adb-hotham was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ↑ Hotham, Charles (1854). "VPRS 1085/P0 Despatch No. 148: Reporting the burning of the Eureka Hotel on the Ballaarat Gold Field" (PDF). Victorian Collections. Public Records Office of Victoria. Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  9. ↑ "NOT GUILTY!". The Age. Vol. I, , no. 111. Victoria, Australia. 24 February 1855. p. 4. Retrieved 17 October 2025 – via National Library of Australia.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  10. ↑ Turnbull, Clive (1946). Eureka: The Story of Peter Lalor. Melbourne: Hawthorne Press. pp. 36–37.
  11. ↑ "Victoria Constitution Act 1855". foundingdocs.gov.au. Museum of Australian Democracy. Retrieved 18 October 2025.
  12. ↑ Sweetman, Edward (1920). Constitutional development of Victoria, 1851-6. Melbourne: Whitcomb & Tombs Limited. pp. 58–66.
  13. ↑ Cite error: The named reference adb-macarthur was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ↑ "FROM THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY TO MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD MACARTHUR". The Sydney Morning Herald. Vol. XXXVIII, , no. 5836. New South Wales, Australia. 12 February 1857. p. 3. Retrieved 18 October 2025 – via National Library of Australia.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  15. ↑ "CHAOS IN MELBOURNE". Adelaide Observer. Vol. XXIII, , no. 1261. South Australia. 2 December 1865. p. 2 (Supplement to the Adelaide Observer.). Retrieved 18 October 2025 – via National Library of Australia.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  16. ↑ "THE GOVERNMENT AND THE BANKS". Geelong Advertiser. No. 5888. Victoria, Australia. 9 September 1865. p. 3. Retrieved 18 October 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. 1 2 3 4 Twomey, Anne (17 September 2025). "Why supply crises are risky for Governors". YouTube. YouTube. Retrieved 18 October 2025.
  18. ↑ "A CONSTITUTIONAL HITCH IN VICTORIA". South Australian Register. Vol. XXIX, , no. 5728. South Australia. 10 March 1865. p. 2. Retrieved 18 October 2025 – via National Library of Australia.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  19. ↑ "The Black Hole of McCulloch". Ovens And Murray Advertiser. No. 2028. Victoria, Australia. 27 March 1866. p. 2. Retrieved 18 October 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  20. 1 2 Cite error: The named reference adb-darling was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ↑ "THE VICTORIAN CRISIS". South Australian Register. Vol. XXIX, , no. 5939. South Australia. 13 November 1865. p. 2. Retrieved 18 October 2025 – via National Library of Australia.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  22. ↑ "SIR CHARLES DARLING'S RECALL". Bendigo Advertiser. Vol. XIII, , no. 3421. Victoria, Australia. 15 May 1866. p. 1 (Supplement to The Bendigo Advertiser). Retrieved 18 October 2025 – via National Library of Australia.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  23. ↑ Cite error: The named reference adb-carey was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ↑ "SIR CHARLES DARLING'S RECALL". Adelaide Observer. Vol. XXIV, , no. 1282. South Australia. 28 April 1866. p. 1 (Supplement to the Adelaide Observer.). Retrieved 18 October 2025 – via National Library of Australia.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  25. ↑ "THE PROPOSED GRANT TO LADY DARLING". The Age. No. 3844. Victoria, Australia. 25 February 1867. p. 1 (Supplement to The Age). Retrieved 19 October 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  26. ↑ Cite error: The named reference adb-canterbury was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  27. ↑ "No title". The Age. No. 7160. Victoria, Australia. 22 January 1878. p. 2. Retrieved 19 October 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  28. ↑ "The Ministerial Address to the Governor". Weekly Times. No. 444. Victoria, Australia. 9 March 1878. p. 12. Retrieved 19 October 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  29. ↑ "SIR GEORGE BOWEN AND THE COLONIAL OFFICE". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 9, 978. Victoria, Australia. 10 June 1878. p. 1 (The Argus Summary for Europe). Retrieved 19 October 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  30. ↑ "THE GOVERNOR AND THE MINISTRY". The Ballarat Star. Vol. XXIII, , no. 125. Victoria, Australia. 25 May 1878. p. 4. Retrieved 19 October 2025 – via National Library of Australia.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  31. ↑ "THE GOVERNOR'S FAREWELL SPEECH". Geelong Advertiser. No. 9, 776. Victoria, Australia. 12 November 1878. p. 4. Retrieved 19 October 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  32. ↑ Cite error: The named reference adb=bowen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  33. ↑ Cite error: The named reference gov house building was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  34. ↑ Cite error: The named reference chameleon 33 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  35. ↑ Blainey, Geoffrey (2006). "Whirlwind and Calm". A History of Victoria. UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 216. ISBN 0-521-86977-3.
  36. ↑ Dobbin, Marika (2008). "Plane mistake a case of history repeating itself". The Age. The Age. Retrieved 13 October 2025.
  37. ↑ Browne, Geoff (2014). "Sir Brian Stewart Murray (1921–1991)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 13 October 2025.
  38. ↑ Twomey, Anne (2006). The chameleon Crown: The Queen and her Australian governors. Sydney: The Federation Press. pp. 78–71. ISBN 978 186287 629 3.
  39. ↑ Twomey, Anne (19 October 2024). "Why Prince Charles Rejected Being Governor of Victoria". YouTube. YouTube. Retrieved 18 October 2025.
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