Joseph Vardon (27 July 1843 – 20 July 1913) was an Australian politician. Born in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, he received a primary education before becoming a farm worker and apprentice printer, running his own printing business by 1871. He sat on Hindmarsh,

Unley Unley is an inner-southern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, within the City of Unley. The suburb is the home of the Sturt Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Unley neighbours Adelaide Park Lands, Fullar ...

, and

Adelaide City Adelaide City Football Club is a soccer club based in Adelaide, South Australia. The club was known historically as Juventus — the original name given to the club by its founders in Adelaide's Italian community. Adelaide City is one of Aust ...

councils, and was President of the South Australian Liberal Union. He was elected to the

Legislative Council of South Australia The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the House of Assembly. It sits in Parli ...

for the Central District in May 1900, serving until October 1906. Vardon resigned to contest the federal election in December 1906 as an

Anti-Socialist Criticism of socialism (also known as anti-socialism) is any critique of socialist models of economic organization and their feasibility as well as the political and social implications of adopting such a system. Some critiques are not directed ...

candidate for the three South Australian seats in the

Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives (Australia), House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter ...

. At the first count he was in fourth place, 16 votes behind Dugald Crosby. A second count however put Vardon into third, 34 votes ahead of Crosby. Justice Barton, sitting as the

Court of Disputed Returns The Court of Disputed Returns is a court, tribunal, or some other body that determines disputes about elections in some common law countries. The court may be known by another name such as the Court of Disputed Elections. In countries that derive ...

, found that 185 votes had been invalidated because of errors by the returning officers which affected the outcome of the election and declared the election void on 31 May 1907. The South Australian

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Government attempted to install

James O'Loghlin James O'Loghlin (born 1966) is an Australian comedian, television and radio presenter. He works for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Local Radio evening program in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Career Previous ...

in the vacancy. Vardon's initial attempts to obtain a fresh election were unsuccessful. Vardon subsequently succeeded with the High Court declaring O'Loghlin's appointment was void and ordering a supplementary election. Vardon and O'Loghlin both contested the election, with Vardon winning comfortably with 54% of the vote. He was defeated in the 1913 Election, by now a member of the

Commonwealth Liberal Party The Liberal Party was a parliamentary party in Australian federal politics between 1909 and 1917. The party was founded under Alfred Deakin's leadership as a merger of the Protectionist Party and Anti-Socialist Party, an event known as the Fu ...

. His son, Edward Vardon, was an MP for Sturt 1918–1921, 1924–1930 and South Australian

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

Senator 1921–1923. His daughter, Hilda Marian Vardon (1886–1959) married Horace Abercrombie Fairweather (1881–1969), brother of Andrew Fairweather, on 12 April 1911.

References

Australian printers Free Trade Party members of the Parliament of Australia Commonwealth Liberal Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian Senate for South Australia Members of the Australian Senate Members of the South Australian House of Assembly 1843 births 1913 deaths 20th-century Australian politicians {{Australia-FreeTrade-politician-stub