Alfred Alexander Farthing (1 September 1872 – 9 November 1953) was an Australian politician. He was born in

Koroit Koroit is a small rural town in western Victoria, Australia a few kilometres north of the Princes Highway, north-west of Warrnambool and west of Melbourne. It is in the Shire of Moyne local government area located amidst rolling green past ...

to farmer James Haley Farthing and Margaret Leishman. He attended the local state school and then

Melbourne Teachers' College The Melbourne Teachers' College was an Australian tertiary training institution located on Grattan Street, Carlton. It was renamed the Melbourne State College and then the Melbourne College of Advanced Education. In 1989 it became part of the Un ...

, becoming a schoolteacher. Around 1899 he married Elizabeth Parker, with whom he had three children. He was also a cyclist, and his winnings from competitions provided the funds for him to become a publican. He owned a number of hotels, typically buying struggling businesses and revitalising them to sell at a profit. In 1911, he was elected to the

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

as the member for

East Melbourne East Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. East Melbourne recorded a population of 4,896 at the 2021 ...

. He was unseated in August 1912 after illegal practices were identified from his campaign, but was re-elected at the subsequent by-election in October. A Liberal, he joined the "Economy" faction of the newly-formed Nationalist Party in 1917. He voted against the 1924 redistribution bill and was denied Nationalist endorsement at that year's election, but he was re-elected anyway and soon re-joined his former party. His seat was abolished in 1927 and he was defeated running for Caulfield. Farthing died in East Hawthorn in 1953.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Farthing, Alfred 1872 births 1953 deaths Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly