William Lawrence Baillieu (29 April 1859 – 6 February 1936) was an Australian financier and politician. He was a successful businessman, having developed significant business interests from his relatively humble beginnings. He associated with many of the most influential people of his era, and served in 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 ...

for 21 years, including stints as Minister for Works and Health and leader of the Legislative Council. As such, he began the Baillieu family dynasty, several members of which remain prominent figures in public life today.

Life and politics

Baillieu was born in

Queenscliff, Victoria Queenscliff is a small town on the Bellarine Peninsula in southern Victoria, Australia, south of Swan Bay at the entrance to Port Phillip. It is the administrative centre for the Borough of Queenscliffe. At the , Queenscliff had a populati ...

in 1859. He was the second son of James George Baillieu and his wife Emma Lawrence, née Pow, relatively recent immigrants. He was educated at the local state school. He began working as an office boy in the Bank of Victoria at the age of fifteen, and remained with the bank for eleven years. In 1885, he went into partnership with J.D. Munro as auctioneers and estate agents. Two years later, he married Bertha Latham, with whom he would later have three sons and four daughters. The partnership with Munro broke up in 1892 and Baillieu founded his own business as an auctioneer, land agent and finance broker. He made and lost a fortune in the Victorian land boom of the 1890s, but was able to avoid bankruptcy due to a little-known loophole in the insolvency law of the time which was exploited by his solicitor, Theodor Fink. As a result of the loophole, Baillieu was able to clear his debts by paying only a tiny fraction of the sum owed, and was able to escape the stigma of bankruptcy. Despite this hitch, he had developed a reputation as an able and competent financier, and became a director of the

Herald & Weekly Times The Herald and Weekly Times Pty Ltd (HWT) is a newspaper publishing company based in Melbourne, Australia. It is owned and operated by News Pty Ltd, which as News Ltd, purchased the HWT in 1987. Newspapers The HWT's newspaper interests date ba ...

around the turn of the century. In 1901, Baillieu entered politics, standing for and being elected to the

as the member for Northern Province. He was a backbencher for several years, but was promoted to the ministry with the ascension of John Murray as premier, serving as Minister of Public Works and Health. He also served as leader of the Legislative Council until 1917. Baillieu served as an honorary minister in the Murray,

Watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...

and

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera '' Pavo'' and '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are r ...

governments before retiring from politics altogether in 1922. Towards the end of his political career, Baillieu began to take advantage of the need for

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

and

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

that had been made clear as a result of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Following up on his involvement in the 1905 founding of Zinc Corporation Ltd. at the Broken Hill Ore Deposit in New South Wales, Baillieu worked with W.S. Robinson and Sir

Colin Fraser Colin Fraser may refer to: * Colin Fraser (Australian politician) (died 1877), Australian politician *Colin Fraser (Canadian politician) (born 1978), Canadian politician *Colin Fraser (ice hockey) Colin Fraser (born January 28, 1985) is a Canadia ...

to reorganise the Broken Hill Associated Smelters at

Port Pirie Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. The city has an expansive history which dates back to 1845. Port Pirie was the first proclaimed regional city in South A ...

and brought about the formation and development of

EZ Industries EZ Industries, formerly the Electrolytic Zinc Company, was a zinc miner and refiner in Australia. History EZ Industries was established in 1916 by Amalgamated Zinc as the Electrolytic Zinc Company to operate the Risdon Zinc Works on the banks ...

Risdon Risdon is a surname and also a first name, and may refer to: ; Given name * Risdon Beazley (1904–1979), British businessman ; Surname * Dustin Risdon (born 1981), Canadian professional golfer * Elisabeth Risdon (1887–1958) English film act ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

. As a result of this work, he was awarded (jointly with Robinson) the gold medal of the

Institution of Mining and Metallurgy The Institution of Mining and Metallurgy (IMM) was a British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness ...

. At the time of his retirement in 1930, Baillieu was a director of the Herald & Weekly Times, EZ Industries, the Dunlop Rubber Company and

Carlton & United Breweries Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) is an Australian brewing company based in Melbourne and owned by Japanese conglomerate Asahi Breweries. Its notable brands include Victoria Bitter, Carlton Draught, Foster's Lager, Great Northern, Resch's, Pu ...

. He was also involved with the prestigious

Victoria Golf Club The Victoria Golf Club is a golf course located in the city of Oak Bay, British Columbia, Canada, which is part of metropolitan Victoria. It was established in 1893, and is now the oldest golf club in Canada still located on its original site; a ...

, which he had founded and served as president of for several years. Baillieu died in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

on 6 February 1936. His own estate at his death was sworn at only sixty-thousand pounds (Australian) although he was reputed to be a millionaire. However, he had made substantial contributions to charity; among other things, he founded the Anzac Hostel in

Brighton, Victoria Brighton is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 11 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Bayside local government area. Brighton recorded a population of 23,252 at the 2021 census. ...

as a home for permanently disabled ex-soldiers. His descendants have become part of one of Melbourne's wealthiest and most prominent families.

References

Information sourced from obituaries in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' (London), 7 February 1936 and The Argus, Melbourne, 7 and 8 February 1936; Cyclopaedia of Victoria, 1903, Who's Who in Australia, 1938 edn. *J. R. Poynter,
Baillieu, William Lawrence (1859–1936)
, '' Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 7, MUP, 1979, pp 138–145. *

Life and politics

References

Further reading