47 Facts About William Lyne

Sir William John Lyne KCMG was an Australian politician who served as Premier of New South Wales from 1899 to 1901, and later as a federal cabinet minister under Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin.

William Lyne is best known as the subject of the so called "Hopetoun Blunder", unexpectedly being asked to serve as the first Prime Minister of Australia but proving unable to form a government.

William Lyne moved to New South Wales in 1875, buying a station near Albury and becoming prominent in community affairs.

William Lyne was elected to the colonial Legislative Assembly in 1880, and first entered cabinet in 1885 under George Dibbs.

William Lyne was a member of the Protectionist Party, and a major opponent of free-traders Henry Parkes and George Reid.

William Lyne was elected leader of the Protectionists in 1895, and became Leader of the Opposition in New South Wales.

William Lyne stood aside in 1898, but returned as leader the following year and became premier at the head of a coalition with the Labor Party.

William Lyne led an energetic and progressive government, instituting a number of major social reforms.

William Lyne considered the draft constitution to be too unfavourable to New South Wales and supported the "no" vote at the 1898 and 1899 referendums.

In 1900, William Lyne was asked by Lord Hopetoun to lead Australia's first national government.

However, William Lyne had no support from leading federationists and was forced to relinquish the honour to Edmund Barton.

William Lyne became Minister for Home Affairs in Barton's government, and was later Minister for Trade and Customs and Treasurer under Alfred Deakin.

William Lyne opposed the formation of the new Commonwealth Liberal Party in 1909 and spent the rest of his career as a crossbencher, supporting Andrew Fisher's Labor government.

William Lyne lost his seat at the 1913 election and died a few months later.

William Lyne was born at Great Swanport, Van Diemen's Land.

William Lyne was the eldest son of John Lyne, a pastoral farmer who would serve in the Tasmanian House of Assembly from 1880 to 1893.

William Lyne was educated at Horton College, Ross, and subsequently by a private tutor.

William Lyne journeyed with Henry Steiglitz and camped on the Gregory River before heading to George Sutherland's Rocklands lease on the Georgina River.

At this place, William Lyne participated in a skirmish with the local Aboriginal people where one of the group fired a shot, hitting a group of boomerangs which scared the Aboriginal people into fleeing.

William Lyne was the member for Hume in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1880.

William Lyne was a strong protectionist and fought hard for a high tariff.

William Lyne strongly supported railway expansion and pressed on with the building of the Culcairn to Corowa line in his own electorate.

George Reid won the 1895 election on behalf of free traders, and William Lyne became Leader of the Opposition as Dibbs had lost his seat.

In September 1898 William Lyne vacated the leadership of the opposition to Edmund Barton on the latter's entry into parliament.

William Lyne became Premier by agreeing to reforms proposed by the Labor Party.

William Lyne promised the Labor Party specific reforms and he passed 85 Acts between July and December 1900, including early closing of retail shops, coal mines regulation and miners' accident relief, old-age pensions and graduated death duties.

William Lyne publicly advocated No in the referendum of 1898, and in the second referendum of 1899, the only New South Wales convention representative still dissatisfied with the amended bill.

William Lyne protested the contamination of the result by ballot fraud, but soon reconciled himself to the new political reality.

However, since William Lyne had opposed federation, most senior politicians, notably Alfred Deakin, told Hopetoun that they would not serve under William Lyne.

William Lyne became Minister for Home Affairs in Barton's cabinet on 1 January 1901 and was elected to the first federal Parliament as member for the Division of Hume in March 1901.

William Lyne was responsible for the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902, including the introduction of women's suffrage and the establishment of the Commonwealth Public Service.

William Lyne remained Minister for Home Affairs until Charles Kingston left the cabinet, and became Minister for Trade and Customs in his stead on 7 August 1903.

Deakin and William Lyne returned to Australia in June, and when Sir John Forrest resigned his position as Treasurer at the end of July 1907, William Lyne succeeded him.

William Lyne accused Deakin of betrayal and thereafter sat as an independent Protectionist.

The Labor Party came in with a large majority in the April 1910 election, and William Lyne was elected as a pro-Labor independent.

However, William Lyne lost his seat in the May 1913 election when the Labor Party lost to the opposition Commonwealth Liberal Party.

Sir William Lyne died in the Sydney suburb of Double Bay, in 1913.

William Lyne was survived by one son and three daughters of the first marriage and by his second wife and her daughter.

Lady William Lyne died in Canberra in 1961 and is buried in Woden Cemetery.

William Lyne was more of a politician than a statesman, always inclined to take a somewhat narrow view of politics.

William Lyne did some good work when Premier of New South Wales by putting through the Early Closing bill, the Industrial Arbitration bill, and bringing in graduated death duties; but even these measures were part of his bargain with the Labor party.

William Lyne was tall and vigorous, in his younger days a typical Australian bushman.

William Lyne knew everyone in his electorate and was a good friend to all.

William Lyne was bluff and frank and it was said of him that he was a man whose hand went instinctively into his pocket when any appeal was made to him.

William Lyne's reputation has been sullied by Alfred Deakin's description of him as "a crude, sleek, suspicious, blundering, short-sighted, backblocks politician".

William Lyne was largely responsible for pushing through Parliament the bounty scheme that brought the Thylacine to its extinction.

William Lyne was created a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1900.