The 1877 New South Wales colonial election was held between 24 October and 12 November 1877. This election was for all of the 73 seats in the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House ...

and it was conducted in 53 single-member constituencies, six 2-member constituencies and two 4-member constituencies, all with a

first past the post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

system. Suffrage was limited to adult male British subjects, resident in New South Wales. The previous parliament of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

was dissolved on 12 October 1877 by the

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

, Sir Hercules Robinson, on the advice of the

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

, Sir John Robertson. There was no recognisable party structure at this election; instead the government was determined by a loose, shifting factional system. Although the leaders of the main groupings at this election were Robertson and

Sir Henry Parkes Sir Henry Parkes, (27 May 1815 – 27 April 1896) was a colonial Australian politician and the longest-serving non-consecutive premier of the Colony of New South Wales, the present-day state of New South Wales in the Commonwealth of Australi ...

, the subsequent government was formed by

James Farnell James Squire Farnell (25 June 1825 – 21 August 1888) was an Australian politician and Premier of New South Wales. Farnell was a hard-working legislator who gave much study to the land question and also tried hard for some years to pass a bill ...

as a compromise Premier. Farnell's government lasted a year and two days.

Key dates

Results

References

See also