George Kerferd

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George Kerferd

George Briscoe Kerferd (21 January 1831 - 31 December 1899), Australian colonial politician, was the 10th Premier of Victoria. Kerferd was born in Liverpool, the son of a merchant, and was educated there before emigrating to Victoria in 1853. After trying his luck as a gold miner at Bendigo, he settled in Beechworth [1] and became a brewer and wine merchant. He was mayor of Beechworth 1863-64. In 1853 he married Ann Martindale, with whom he had ten children. He was admitted to the Melbourne bar in 1867 but did not practise as a lawyer.

Kerferd was elected to the Legislative Assembly for the Ovens in 1864, and represented the area continuously until 1886. He was Minister for Mines and Vice-President of the Board of Land and Works in the government of James McCulloch 1868, and Solicitor-General 1872-1874 and Attorney-General in 1874 in the government of James Francis. When the Francis government was defeated in July 1874 he succeeded him at the head of a new conservative ministry.

Kerferd's Treasurer, James Service, was, like most colonial conservatives, a convinced free trader, and the government's 1875 budget proposed repealing the tariffs imposed by Charles Gavan Duffy's liberal government, and replacing the lost revenue with a land tax and a tax on beer and spirits. But this offended both the landowners and the business community, and Kerferd's government was defeated in August 1875.

Kerferd was again Attorney-General in later conservative governments (1875-1877, 1880 and 1883-86, in the Service government). In 1886 he quit politics and on 1 January 1886 was appointed to the Supreme Court of Victoria, where he served until his death in 1899. Kerferd Rd in Albert Park is named after him.

[edit] References

Geoff Browne, A Biographical Register of the Victorian Parliament, 1900-84, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1985
Don Garden, Victoria: A History, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1984
Kathleen Thompson and Geoffrey Serle, A Biographical Register of the Victorian Parliament, 1856-1900, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1972
Raymond Wright, A People's Counsel. A History of the Parliament of Victoria, 1856-1990, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1992