Australian Timeline

www.history-aust.com

 
Donate Now
1909

This is a list of members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly between the 30 April 1909 election and the 30 April 1912 election.

A redistribution in 1907 resulted in the abolition of all of the single-member seats and the adoption of the five federal electorates which had been created for Tasmania, and used the Hare-Clark proportional representation system to elect six members to each of the seats. The 1909 election was the point at which these changes took effect.

One major result was the formation of parties—prior to 1909, members other than those pledged to the Labor Party had adopted loose and flexible affiliations, generally being known as "Ministerialist", "Oppositionist/Liberal" or "Independent". A coalition of former Ministerialists, Independents and Liberals formed the Anti-Socialist Party (which became the Liberal Party of Tasmania in 1912), while another group of Oppositionists formed the Liberal Democrat Party.

The second major result was the product of the election itself—the near-complete destruction of the former Liberal grouping which had originally formed around Sir Edward Braddon and Andrew Inglis Clark, and the considerable rise in the fortunes of the Labor Party. They gained 12 seats in the new Assembly, and for the first time in Tasmania's history, held government for a week in October 1909 under Premier John Earle.

Name Party Division Years in office
Thomas Bakhap Anti-Socialist Bass 1909–1913
James Belton Labor Darwin 1909–1931
Jonathan Best Anti-Socialist Wilmot 1894–1897; 1899–1912; 1913
Edward Crowther Anti-Socialist Denison 1878–1912
John Davies Anti-Socialist Denison 1884–1913
David Dicker Labor Franklin 1909–1922
John Earle Labor Franklin 1906–1917
John Evans Anti-Socialist Franklin 1897–1937
Norman Ewing Anti-Socialist Franklin 1909–1915
Richard Field Anti-Socialist Wilmot 1909–1912
James Guy Labor Bass 1909–1913
Herbert Hays[3] Anti-Socialist Wilmot 1911–1922
Alexander Hean Anti-Socialist Franklin 1903–1913; 1916–1925
Thomas Hodgman Anti-Socialist Franklin 1900–1912
John Hope[3] Anti-Socialist Wilmot 1900–1911
Charles Howroyd Labor Bass 1906–1917
James Hurst[1] Labor Darwin 1910–1912; 1919–1926
Jens Jensen[2] Labor Wilmot 1903–1910; 1922–1925;
1928–1934
Walter Lee Anti-Socialist Wilmot 1909–1946
Elliott Lewis Anti-Socialist Denison 1886–1903; 1909–1922
James Long[1] Labor Darwin 1903–1910
Joseph Lyons Labor Wilmot 1909–1929
Richard McKenzie Anti-Socialist Bass 1906–1913
Edward Mulcahy[2] Anti-Socialist Wilmot 1891–1903; 1910–1919
James Ogden Labor Darwin 1906–1922
Herbert Payne Anti-Socialist Darwin 1903–1920
Frederick Rattle Anti-Socialist Denison 1903–1912
Robert Sadler Liberal Democrat Bass 1900–1912; 1913–1922
William Sheridan Labor Denison 1909–1913; 1914–1928
Albert Solomon Anti-Socialist Bass 1909–1914
Benjamin Watkins Labor Darwin 1906–1917; 1919–1922;
1925–1934
Joshua Whitsitt Anti-Socialist Darwin 1909–1922
Walter Woods Labor Denison 1906–1917; 1925–1931
1 On 28 February 1910, Darwin Labor MHA James Long resigned to contest a seat in the Australian Senate. Labor candidate James Hurst replaced him on 8 June 1910.
2 On 25 February 1910, Wilmot Labor MHA Jens Jensen resigned to contest the Bass seat in the federal House of Representatives. Anti-Socialist candidate Edward Mulcahy replaced him on 8 June 1910.
3 On 14 April 1911, Wilmot Anti-Socialist MHA John Hope resigned to contest the Legislative Council seat of Meander, which he won on 2 May 1911. Anti-Socialist candidate Herbert Hays replaced him on 8 June 1911.