Edward Francis Cleary (c. 1878 – 24 August 1936) was an Australian politician. He was born in Nooramunga to farmer Michael Cleary and Mary Moroney. He attended state schools and became a farmer at Goorambat. On 16 September 1907 he married Catherine Pelly, with whom he had nine children. He served on Benalla Shire Council from 1910 to 1936, and was president from 1913 to 1914. In 1927 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 presidin ...

for

Benalla Benalla is a small city located on the Broken River gateway to the High Country north-eastern region of Victoria, Australia, about north east of the state capital Melbourne. At the the population was 10,822. It is the administrative cent ...

, representing the Country Progressive Party. In 1930 the Country Progressives reunited within the Country Party, and in 1935 Cleary became government whip. He died in

East Melbourne East Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government areas of ...

in 1936. One of his sons, Edward "Ted" Cleary, played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

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Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

References

1870s births 1936 deaths Country Progressive Party members of the Parliament of Victoria National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly {{Australia-politician-stub