Jim Balfour

James Charles Murray "Jim" Balfour CBE (30 September 1914 – 19 May 1990) was an Australian politician.

He was born at Windsor to James Miller Balfour and Katrine Elizabeth Alice Murray. He was educated at Geelong College and became a dairy farmer, settling near Trafalgar. From 1946 to 1967 he served on Narracan Shire Council (president from 1946 to 1947, 1950 to 1951 and 1960 to 1961). In 1955 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Morwell, representing the Liberal Party. From 1958 to 1961 he was government whip, and from 1961 to 1964 cabinet secretary. In 1964 he entered the ministry as Minister of Water Supply and Mines, a portfolio reorganised to become Lands, Soldier Settlement and Conservation a few months later. In 1967 he moved to the new seat of Narracan and became Minister of Fuel and Power and of Mines. In 1977 he moved to the Minerals and Energy portfolio, from which he resigned in 1981, in which year he received the CBE. He retired from politics in 1982 and was subsequently involved in the regional TAFE program. Balfour died in 1990. On 6 February 1937 he had married Mary Emma Savige, with whom he had four sons.^[1]

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