Protectionist Party
1 January 1901 - 24 September 1903
(2 years, 8 months, 24 days)
Born: 18 January 1849 Sydney; Died: 7 January 1920, Medlow Bath, NSW
Federation was Edmund Barton’s ‘one great thing’. One of the key architects of Australia’s Constitution, Barton became the new nation’s first Prime Minister at a grand ceremony in Centennial Park, Sydney, on 1 January 1901.
Admired for his intellect and calm temper, Barton’s glowing eyes revealed a keen sense of humour, while his ample girth was evidence of a love of good food, fine wine and stimulating conversation. With a rich and engrossing voice, he commanded authority wherever he spoke.
In 1903 Barton resigned to become one of the three judges who founded Australia’s High Court.
Protectionist Party
24 September 1903 - 27 April 1904
(7 months, 4 days)
Born: 3 August 1856, Melbourne; Died: 7 October 1919, Melbourne
Alfred Deakin, Australia’s second Prime Minister, was also the fifth and the seventh. He was in office three times in the first ten years of Federation.
Often referred to as ‘the constructor’, his work in building soundly on the nation’s constitutional foundations is evident a century later.
Perhaps the finest speaker in the Australian parliament’s first century, Deakin’s love of learning informed his political life. Handsome and intelligent, his courteous manner earned him the nickname ‘Affable Alfred’.
Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, a notable political orator, was also a scholar and writer.
Australian Labor Patry
27 April 1904 - 18 August 1904
(3 months, 21 days)
Born: Probably 9 April 1867, Chile; Died: 18 November 1941, Sydney
Australia’s first Labor Prime Minister held office for only four months in 1904, but his imprint on legislation extended through the first decade of the Australian parliament.
John Christian Watson was a founder and one of the principal shapers of the Australian Labor Party.
Free Trade
18 August 1904 - 5 July 1905
(10 months, 18 days)
Born: 25 February 1845, Scotland; Died: 12 September 1918, London
George Reid, Prime Minister from 1904 to 1905, was Leader of the Opposition for six of the first seven years of the Australian parliament.
Reid is remembered more for his quirks than his acquittal of the roles of parliamentary representative, party leader, Prime Minister, and Australia’s founding High Commissioner in London.
Though he held office for less than a year, Reid’s story makes him one of the most interesting of Australia’s prime ministers.
Protectionist Party
5 July 1905 - 13 November 1908
(3 years, 4 months, 9 days)
Australian Labor Party
13 November 1908 - 2 June 1909
(6 months, 21 days)
Born: 29 August 1862, Crosshouse, Ayrshire, Scotland
Married: Margaret Irvine 31 December 1901, Gympie, Qld
Children: Robert, Margaret, Henry, Andrew, John and James
Died: 22 October 1928, Hampstead, London
Buried:Hampstead, London
Andrew Fisher was Prime Minister three times (1908–09, 1910–13
and 1914–15). He also served as Treasurer during each of these terms.
He migrated from Scotland to Queensland in his early 20s and was a founding
member of the Queensland Labor Party.
During his second term as PM the parliament passed a total of
113 acts. During his government the Royal Australian Navy and the Commonwealth
Bank (1912) were established, the Northern Territory was transferred to the
Commonwealth, and construction of the transcontinental railway began.
Fisher's government named wattle as Australia's national flower and put the wattle
on Australia's Coat of Arms.
Margaret Fisher led the Australian group in the British suffrage march in London
in 1911.
Protectionist Party
2 June 1909 - 29 April 1910
(10 months, 28 days)
Australian Labor Party
29 April 1910 - 24 June 1913
(3 years, 1 month, 26 days)
Fisher was the first Prime Minister to hold a majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives in 1910.
(Liberal Party of Australia)
24 June 1913 - 17 September 1914
(1 year, 2 months, 25 days)
Born: 7 December 1860, Silverdale, Staffordshire, England
Married: Mary Turner 8 August 1885, Wolstanton, England
Children: GS, Albert, Joseph, John, Annette, Winifred, Cecil, Raymond, Constance
Died: 30 July 1947, Bellevue Hill, Sydney
Cremated: Sydney
Joseph Cook was Australia's sixth Prime Minister. He had held the Defence portfolio in Alfred Deakin's government, and the Navy and Treasury portfolios in the government of William Hughes.
Cook began his political life as a Labor parliamentarian in New South Wales before Federation. He joined the first federal parliament in 1901 as member of the Free Trade Party. In 1917 he was a key figure in the formation of the Nationalist Party led by Hughes. After leaving politics, Cook was Australia's High Commissioner in London.
Cook was one of the 'Australian Lincolns' — those PMs whose early poverty meant they had left school as boys to take jobs.
Australian Labor Party
17 September 1914 - 27 October 1915
(1 year, 1 month, 11 days)
Australia Labor Party; Nationalist Party from 1917
27 October 1915 - 9 February 1923
(7 years, 3 months, 14 days)
Born: 25 September 1862, Pimlico, London
Married: Elizabeth Cutts
Children: Ethel, William, Lily, Dolly, Ernest and Charles
Married: Mary Campbell 26 June 1911 South Yarra, Melbourne
Children: Helen
Died: 28 October 1952, Lindfield, Sydney
Buried: Northern Suburbs Cemetry, Sydney
William Morris Hughes was Australia's seventh Prime Minister.
Hughes was Australia's longest serving federal parliamentarian.
He was a member of Australia's first parliament in 1901 and he
served 51 continuous years until 1952. He was a founding member
of three Australian political parties:
* the Labor Party
(1916)
*
the Nationalist Party
(1929)
*
the United Australia Party (1944)
Hughes was expelled from them all. He sat as a member of the Liberal
Party from 1945 to 1952. He was the longest serving PM until 1956
when Robert menzies overtook his record.
In 1915 Hughes founded the Advisory Council for Science and Industry,
later the CSIRO.
Nationalist Party
9 February 1923 - 22 October 1929
(6 years, 8 months, 14 days)
Born:
Married:
Children:
Died:
Buried:
Stanley Melbourne Bruce was prime minister for six years (1923–29),
and a member of the House of Representatives for 13 years (1918–29
and 1931–33). In 1929 he became the first prime minister
to lose his seat as well as his office (the second being John Howard
in 2007).
Bruce's chief contribution to Australia was as an international
statesman. He was Australia's High Commissioner in London (1933–45).
Bruce was also strongly involved in the League of Nations.
Australian Labor Party
22 October 1929 - 6 January 1932
(2 years, 2 months, 16 days)
Born:
Married:
Children:
Died:
Buried:
United Australia Party
6 January 1932 - 7 April 1939
(7 years, 3 months, 2 days)
Born:
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Australian Country Party
7 April 1939 - 26 April 1939
(20 days)
Born:
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Earle Christmas Grafton Page was Australia's 11th prime minister (1939). He was a New South Wales parliamentarian who held the seat of Cowper from 1920 to 1961. Page was the leader of the Country Party from 1921 to 1939. He formed a coalition government with Stanley Melbourne Bruce, the Nationalist Party leader. Page was a surgeon with a medical practice serving a large rural district. He was one of the first Australians to own a car.
United Australia Party
26 April 1939 - 29 August 1941
(2 years, 4 months, 4 days)
Born:
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Buried:
Country Party
29 August 1941 - 7 October 1941
(1 month, 9 days)
Born:
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Australian Labor Party
7 October 1941 - 5 July 1945
(3 years, 8 months, 29 days)
Born:
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Died:
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Australian Labor Party
6 July 1945 - 13 July 1945
(8 days)
Born:
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Australian Labor Party
13 July 1945 - 19 December 1949
(4 years, 5 months, 7 days)
Born:
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Liberal Party of Australia
19 December 1949 - 26 January 1966
(16 years, 1 month, 8 days)
Born:
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Liberal Party of Australia
26 January 1966 - 19 December 1967
(1 year, 10 months, 23 days)
Born:
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Died:
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Country Party
19 December 1967 - 10 January 1968
(23 days)
Born:
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Died:
Buried:
Liberal Party of Australia
10 January 1968 - 10 March 1971
(3 years, 2 months)
Born:
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Children:
Died:
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Libertal Party of Australia
10 march 1971 - 5 December 1972
(1 year, 8 months, 25 days)
Born:
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Died:
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Australian Labor Party
5 December 1972 - 11 November 1975
(2 years, 11 months, 7 days)
Born:
Married:
Children:
Liberal Party of Australia
11 November 1975 - 11 March 1983
(7 years, 4 months)
Born:
Married:
Children:
Australian Labor Party
11 March 1983 - 20 December 1991
(8 years, 9 months, 10 days)
Born:
Married:
Children:
Australian Labor Party
20 December 1991 - 11 March 1996
(4 years, 2 months, 20 days)
Born:
Married:
Children:
Liberal Party of Australia
11 March 1996 - 24 November 2007
Born:
Married:
Children:
Australian Labor Party
24 November 2007 - 24 June 2010
Born:
Kevin Rudd was Australia’s 26th Prime Minister and the 19th Leader of the Australian Labor Party. He held the office from 3 December 2007 until 24 June 2010 when he was replaced as the leader of the Parliamentary Labor Party by Julia Gillard.
Kevin Rudd departed from firm Labor Party practice when he selected his own ministers – he was the first Labor Prime Minister to break the traditional role of the Caucus. There were 42 members of the Rudd government executive, 20 Cabinet members, 10 other ministers and 12 parliamentary secretaries. Kevin Rudd was also the first Australian Prime Minister to appoint a female deputy, Julia Gillard.
The historic highlight of his first months in office, however, was his apology to Indigenous people in the opening week of Australia’s 42nd parliament.
The Prime Minister followed the lead of all Australian post-war prime ministers and visited countries considered significant in Australia’s international and trade relations. With the issue of climate change at the forefront, Kevin Rudd’s first visit abroad was to Indonesia for a conference on climate change where, on behalf of the Australian Government, he ratified the Kyoto Protocol. In his first months in office Kevin Rudd also visited China, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
At home, the new government gave immediate priority to its key policy areas of education, employment and health, and introduced legislation to reverse some of the major workplace reforms of the Howard government.
Australian Labor Party
24 June 2010 to present
Born: Wales
On 24 June 2010 Julia Gillard became Australia’s 27th Prime Minister and the first woman to hold the office. She was elected unopposed by the Parliamentary Labor Party.
Before becoming Prime Minister, she served as the Deputy Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010 in Kevin Rudd’s Labor government, where she was Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations; Minister for Education; and Minister for Social Inclusion.
She is the Federal Member for Lalor (Vic) and was first elected to Parliament in 1998. In the August 2010 elections, Julia Gillard formed a minority government with two seats ahead of Tony Abbott's Liberal Party thanks to one Greens member and three independents.
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