Western Province (Victoria)

Western Province
Victoria—Legislative Council
Western Province, 1856
StateVictoria
Created1856
Abolished2006
DemographicRural

Western Province was an electorate of the Victorian Legislative Council (Australia), the upper house of the Parliament of Victoria.[1] Victoria was a colony in Australia when Western Province was created. From Federation in 1901, Victoria was a state in the Commonwealth of Australia.

Western Province was one of the six original upper house Provinces of the bicameral Victorian Parliament created in November 1856.[2]

Western Province was defined in the Victorian Constitution Act, 1855, as : "Including the Counties of Ripon, Hampden, Heytesbury, Villiers, Normanby, Dundas, and Follett."[3]

In 1882, several new Provinces were created, including Nelson Province and Wellington Province, the numbers of members elected for Western Province was reduced to three from this time.[4] Another redistribution in 1904 reduced the number of members to two.[5]

In 2006, the Western Province (along with all the other provinces in the Legislative Council) was abolished and replaced by regions. All of the area covered by Western Province is contained in the larger Western Victoria Region.[6]

  1. ^ "Re-Member (Former Members)". State Government of Victoria. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  2. ^ Edward Sweetman (1920). Constitutional Development of Victoria, 1851-6. Whitcombe & Tombs Limited. p. 182. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  3. ^ "Victoria Constitution Act 1855" (PDF). Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  4. ^ "The Legislative Council Act 1881". Australasian Legal Information Institute. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  5. ^ "Electoral Provinces Boundaries Act 1903". Australasian Legal Information Institute. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  6. ^ "Western Victoria Region profile". Victorian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 17 June 2013.