William Lawrence Baillieu (29 April 1859 – 6 February 1936) was an Australian financier and politician. He was a successful businessman, having developed significant business interests from his relatively humble beginnings. He associated with many of the most influential people of his era, and served in the

Victorian Legislative Council The Victorian Legislative Council is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia, the lower house being the Victorian Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House, Melbourne, Parliament ...

for 21 years, including stints as Minister for Works and Health and leader of the Legislative Council. As such, he began the Baillieu family dynasty, several members of which remain prominent figures in public life today.

Life and politics

Baillieu was born in

Queenscliff, Victoria Queenscliff is a town at the south-eastern end of the Bellarine Peninsula in southern Victoria, Australia. It lies south of Swan Bay at the entrance to Port Phillip. It is the administrative centre for the Borough of Queenscliffe. At the , ...

in 1859. He was the second son of James George Baillieu and his wife Emma Lawrence, née Pow, relatively recent immigrants. He was educated at the local state school. He began working as an office boy in the Bank of Victoria at the age of fifteen, and remained with the bank for eleven years. In 1885, he went into partnership with J.D. Munro as auctioneers and estate agents. Two years later, he married Bertha Latham, with whom he would later have three sons and four daughters. The partnership with Munro broke up in 1892 and Baillieu founded his own business as an auctioneer, land agent and finance broker. He made and lost a fortune in the Victorian land boom of the 1890s, but was able to avoid bankruptcy due to a little-known loophole in the insolvency law of the time which was exploited by his solicitor, Theodor Fink. As a result of the loophole, Baillieu was able to clear his debts by paying only a tiny fraction of the sum owed, and was able to escape the stigma of bankruptcy. Despite this hitch, he had developed a reputation as an able and competent financier, and became a director of the

Herald & Weekly Times ''The Herald and Weekly Times'' Pty Ltd (HWT) is a newspaper publishing company based in Melbourne, Australia. It is owned and operated by News Pty Ltd, which as News Ltd, purchased the HWT in 1987. Newspapers The HWT's newspaper interests dat ...

around the turn of the century. In 1901, Baillieu entered politics, standing for and being elected to the

as the member for Northern Province. He was a backbencher for several years, but was promoted to the ministry with the ascension of John Murray as premier, serving as

Minister of Public Works This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

and Health. He also served as leader of the Legislative Council until 1917. Baillieu served as an honorary minister in the Murray,

Watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

and

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus '' Pavo'' and one species of the closely related genus '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are referred t ...

governments before retiring from politics altogether in 1922. Towards the end of his political career, Baillieu began to take advantage of the need for

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

and

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

that had been made clear as a result of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Following up on his involvement in the 1905 founding of Zinc Corporation Ltd. at the

Broken Hill Ore Deposit The Broken Hill Ore Deposit is located underneath Broken Hill in western New South Wales, Australia, and is the namesake for the town. It is arguably the world's richest and largest zinc-lead ore deposit. History Discovery Charles St ...

in New South Wales, Baillieu worked with W.S. Robinson and Sir

Colin Fraser Colin Fraser may refer to: * Colin Fraser (Australian politician) (died 1877), Australian politician *Colin Fraser (Canadian politician) (born 1978), Canadian politician *Colin Fraser (ice hockey) Colin Fraser (born January 28, 1985) is a Canadia ...

to reorganise the Broken Hill Associated Smelters at

Port Pirie Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. Port Pirie is the largest city and the main retail centre of the Mid North region of South Australia. The city has an ex ...

and brought about the formation and development of

EZ Industries EZ Industries, formerly the Electrolytic Zinc Company, was a zinc miner and refiner in Australia. History EZ Industries was established in 1916 by Amalgamated Zinc as the Electrolytic Zinc Company to operate the Risdon Zinc Works on the banks ...

in Risdon,

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

. As a result of this work, he was awarded (jointly with Robinson) the gold medal of the

Institution of Mining and Metallurgy The Institution of Mining and Metallurgy (IMM) was a British research institution, founded in 1892. Members of the Institution used the post-nominals MIMM. In 2002, it merged with The Institute of Materials (IOM) to form the Institute of Materials, ...

. At the time of his retirement in 1930, Baillieu was a director of the Herald & Weekly Times, EZ Industries, the Dunlop Rubber Company and

Carlton & United Breweries Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) is an Australian brewing company based in Melbourne and owned by Japanese conglomerate Asahi Breweries. Its notable brands include Victoria Bitter, Carlton Draught, Foster's Lager, Great Northern, Resch's, ...

. He was also involved with the prestigious Victoria Golf Club, which he had founded and served as president of for several years. Baillieu died in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

on 6 February 1936. His own estate at his death was sworn at only sixty-thousand pounds (Australian) although he was reputed to be a millionaire. However, he had made substantial contributions to charity; among other things, he founded the Anzac Hostel in

Brighton, Victoria Brighton is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 11 km south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Bayside Local government areas of Victo ...

as a home for permanently disabled ex-soldiers. His descendants have become part of one of Melbourne's wealthiest and most prominent families.

References

Information sourced from obituaries in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' (London), 7 February 1936 and The Argus, Melbourne, 7 and 8 February 1936; Cyclopaedia of Victoria, 1903, Who's Who in Australia, 1938 edn. *J. R. Poynter,
Baillieu, William Lawrence (1859–1936)
, ''

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

'', Volume 7, MUP, 1979, pp 138–145. *

Life and politics

References

Further reading