Sir William Austin Zeal (5 December 1830 – 11 March 1912) was an Australian railway engineer and politician, Senator for

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 ...

in the

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. Zeal was born at Westbury, Wiltshire,

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, the son of Thomas Zeal, a wine merchant, and Ann, ''nee'' Greenland. Educated privately, Zeal obtained his diploma as a surveyor and engineer, and came to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in 1852. Employed as an engineer in charge of railway construction by private contractors, Zeal was also employed in the government service for some years. In 1864, he was elected to

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 ...

as one of the three members for the seat of Castlemaine. During his campaign for election, Zeal strongly criticised the ability of the

Victorian Railways The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...

engineer-in-chief,

Thomas Higinbotham Thomas Higinbotham (1819 – 5 September 1880), was an Irish-born civil engineer and civil servant, particularly associated with the development of railway projects in England and Australia. Education and training Higinbotham was born in Dublin ...

. In 1865, a select committee of the Victorian Parliament was set up to investigate Higinbotham's claim that Zeal had exaggerated the extent of his experience, and his implication that Zeal had acted corruptly when dealing with private railway construction contractors

Cornish and Bruce Cornish & Bruce was a railway contracting company in Victoria, Australia in the mid nineteenth century. The partnership comprised William Crocker Cornish, a building contractor born in Cornwall, England,John Maxwell'Cornish, William Crocker (1815� ...

, whom Zeal left the government service to work for. The committee exonerated Zeal. Having joined forces with Sir

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in a station in the

Riverina The Riverina is an agricultural region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, warm to hot climate and an ample supply of water for irrigation ...

, Zeal resigned his seat in December 1865. Drought conditions caused him to resume his practice as an engineer in 1869, including the design of the Moama-Deniliquin railway. In 1871, he was again elected for Castlemaine, but the pressure of business caused him to resign in 1874. In 1882, he entered the

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

as a representative of the North Central Province and, in April 1892, he became

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in the Shiels ministry. He resigned in November and was elected president of the Legislative Council. Zeal was re-elected to that position in 1894, 1897 and 1900, and was one of the representatives of

at the 1897 federal convention that worked towards federation of the six Australian colonies. At the first federal election in 1901, Zeal was elected to the Australian Senate as a Protectionist Party representative for Victoria. In 1906, then in his seventy-sixth year, he declined to stand due to age concerns. Zeal was a director of several leading Melbourne financial companies and retained his interest in them until his death, following an operation, in 1912. Created KCMG in 1895, Zeal never married.

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