Bungendore and Region Information Service - History of Bungendore and our Region

PRIME MINISTERS OF AUSTRALIA

In the light of the 2007 Federal Election, we decided to include a reference page on Australian Prime Ministers. Below is the complete list from Federation, 1 January 1901, until now. There have been twenty-six Prime Ministers of Australia with thirty changes of office.

Sir Edmund Barton, PC, GCMG, KC
Protectionist Party
1 January 1901 - 24 September 1903
(2 years, 8 months, 24 days)

Born: 18 January 1849 Glebe, Sydney
Married: Jane Ross 28 December 1877, Newcastle, NSW
Children: Edmund, Wilfrid, Jean, Arnold, Oswald and Leila
Died: 7 January 1920, Medlow Bath, NSW
Buried: South Head Cemetery, Sydney

Federation of the six Australian colonies into one nation was Edmund Barton's mission, and its achievement his greatest success. Barton became Prime Minister on 1 January 1901, and is the only PM to be in office longer than he was a member of federal parliament, as the first parliament met on 9 May 1901.
Barton was the second Australian to receive the GCMG — the highest knighthood available in the Empire. Sir Henry Parkes was the first. One of three PMs to receive Japan's Order of the Rising Sun, First Class. The others were Robert Menzies and John McEwen.
On 23 September 1903 Barton resigned his seat for the bench when he became a judge on the first High Court.

Alfred Deakin
Protectionist Party
24 September 1903 - 27 April 1904
(7 months, 4 days)

Born: 3 August 1856, Collingwood, Melbourne
Married: Elizabeth Browne 3 April 1882, Melbourne
Children: Ivy, Stella and Vera
Died: 7 October 1919, South Yarra, Melbourne
Buried: St Kilda Cemetery, Melbourne

Three times Prime Minister, Alfred Deakin was a member of the House of Representatives from 1901 to 1913. He was PM for two brief terms (1903–04 and 1909–10), and for three years from 1905 to 1908.
Deakin was the only PM to reject both the title 'Right Honorable' and membership of the Privy Council and also refused honorary degrees from Oxford and Cambridge universities.
Deakin's archival records are concerned with a range of topics from the foundations of Australian defence policy to the transfer of the Northern Territory to the Commonwealth in 1911.

John Christian Watson
Australian Labor Patry
27 April 1904 - 17 August 1904
(3 months, 21 days)

Born: Probably 9 April 1867, Valparalso, Chile
Married: Ada Low 27 November 1889
Children: None
Married: Antonia Dowlan 30 October 1925
Children: Jacqueline
Died: 18 November 1941, Double Bay, Sydney
Cremated: Ashes at North Sydney Crematorium

Prime Minister in 1904 for less than four months, Chris Watson made history as the first head of a Labor government of any nation in the world. He was also Australia's youngest PM, serving in parliament until 1910, and developing business and investment interests, with motoring and the development of roads a key interest from the 1920s.
A founder of the Australian Labor Party, Watson remained an influential figure until he was expelled for his support of conscription in 1917 by the solidarity rule which he established.
Watson designed the soldier settlement scheme in 1917, was a trustee of Sydney Cricket Ground, a founder and first chairman of Ampol in 1936 and a founder of the NRMA.

George Houstoun Reid (later Sir George), PC, KC
Free Trade
18 August 1904 - 5 July 1905
(10 months, 18 days)

Born: 25 February 1945, Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland
Married: Florence Brumby 5 November 1891, Wangaratta, Victoria
Children: Thelma, Douglas and Clive
Died: 12 September 1918, London
Buried: Putney Vale Cemetery, London

Prime Minister for less than a year (1904–05), Reid was Leader of the Opposition for six years. After eight years as a member of the House of Representatives, he resigned to become Australia's first High Commissioner in London.
A Federation father, Reid was a member of the New South Wales parliament for 20 years, and Premier from 1894 to 1899. He was the only Australian to serve in all three legislatures — colonial, Commonwealth and British.
In the last two years of his life Reid was a member of the 'mother of parliaments', with a seat in the House of Commons from January 1916 until his death in 1918. He was the first Australian PM to have a ministerial funeral.
Dame Florence Reid was among the first four recipients in 1917 of the Dame Grand Cross of the British Empire.

Alfred Deakin
Protectionist Party
5 July 1905 - 13 November 1908
(3 years, 4 months, 9 days)

Andrew Fisher
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.

Alfred Deakin
Protectionist Party
2 June 1909 - 29 April 1910
(10 months, 28 days)

Andrew Fisher
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.

Joseph Cook (later Sir Joseph) PC, GCMG
(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.

Andrew Fisher
Australian Labor Party
17 September 1914 - 27 October 1915
(1 year, 1 month, 11 days)

William Morris Hughes
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.

Stanley Melbourne Bruce, PC, CH, MC
Nationalist Party
9 February 1923 - 22 October 1929
(6 years, 8 months, 14 days)

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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.

James Henry Scullin, PC
Australian Labor Party
22 October 1929 - 6 January 1932
(2 years, 2 months, 16 days)

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Joseph Aloysius Lyons, PC, CH
United Australia Party
6 January 1932 - 7 April 1939
(7 years, 3 months, 2 days)

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Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page, PC, GCMG
Australian Country Party
7 April 1939 - 26 April 1939
(20 days)

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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.

Robert Gordon Menzies, PC, KC
United Australia Party
26 April 1939 - 29 August 1941
(2 years, 4 months, 4 days)

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Arthur William Fadden (later Sir Arthur)
Country Party
29 August 1941 - 7 October 1941
(1 month, 9 days)

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John Curtin, PC
Australian Labor Party
7 October 1941 - 5 July 1945
(3 years, 8 months, 29 days)

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Francis Michael Forde, PC
Australian Labor Party
6 July 1945 - 13 July 1945
(8 days)

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Joseph Benedict Chifley, PC
Australian Labor Party
13 July 1945 - 19 December 1949
(4 years, 5 months, 7 days)

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Robert Gordon Menzies (later Sir Rober), PC, KC
Liberal Party of Australia
19 December 1949 - 26 January 1966
(16 years, 1 month, 8 days)

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Harold Edward Holt, PC, CH
Liberal Party of Australia
26 January 1966 - 19 December 1967
(1 year, 10 months, 23 days)

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John McEwen (later Sir John), PC
Country Party
19 December 1967 - 10 January 1968
(23 days)

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John Grey Gorton, PC
Liberal Party of Australia
10 January 1968 - 10 March 1971
(3 years, 2 months)

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William McMahon (later Sir William), PC, CH
Libertal Party of Australia
10 march 1971 - 5 December 1972
(1 year, 8 months, 25 days)

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Edward Gough Whitlam, QC
Australian Labor Party
5 December 1972 - 11 November 1975
(2 years, 11 months, 7 days)

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John Malcolm Fraser, PC, CH
Liberal Party of Australia
11 November 1975 - 11 March 1983
(7 years, 4 months)

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Robert James Lee Hawke, AC
Australian Labor Party
11 March 1983 - 20 December 1991
(8 years, 9 months, 10 days)

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Paul John Keating
Australian Labor Party
20 December 1991 - 11 March 1996
(4 years, 2 months, 20 days)

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John Winston Howard
Liberal Party of Australia
11 March 1996 - 24 November 2007

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Kevin Rudd
Australian Labor Party
24 November 2007 -

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Last updated: 7 January, 2010 2004-2010 Bungendore and Region Information