Sir John O'Shanassy, KCMG (18 February 1818 – 5 May 1883), was an Irish-Australian politician who served as the 2nd Premier of Victoria. O'Shanassy was born near Thurles in

County Tipperary County Tipperary () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary (tow ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, the son of a surveyor, and came to the

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(later Victoria) in 1839. He went into business in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

as a draper, and by 1846 he was rich enough to be elected to the Melbourne City Council and to become the founding chairman of the Colonial Bank of Australasia. By the 1850s he was a major landowner and one of the wealthiest men in the colony. He also became a recognised leader of the large Irish Catholic community.

Biography

O'Shanassy was elected to the inaugural

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

for

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in 1851. When Victoria gained

responsible government Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability, the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy. Governments (the equivalent of the executive br ...

in 1856, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly for both

and Kilmore districts, he decided to represent the latter resulting in a by-election for Melbourne. In 1868 he returned to the council as member for Central Province, then in 1877 he went back to the Assembly as member for

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(later known as Port Fairy), which he represented until 1883. Although he had been regarded as a liberal in his early career, in the colonial Parliament O'Shanassy emerged as the leader of the conservative opposition to the reforming ministry of William Haines, although there was no formal party system in Victoria at this time. His alienation from the liberals was mainly as a result of the

tariff A tariff or import tax is a duty (tax), duty imposed by a national Government, government, customs territory, or supranational union on imports of goods and is paid by the importer. Exceptionally, an export tax may be levied on exports of goods ...

issue: most colonial liberals were protectionists, but O'Shanassy was a free trader. When Haines's ministry fell in March 1857, O'Shanassy succeeded him as Premier, but his government fell in April and Haines returned to office. O'Shanassy was Premier again from March 1858 to October 1859 and his deputy was Charles Gavan Duffy. The combination of these two Irish Catholics heading up the colony's administration was a source of great consternation among the Protestant elite and ensured that sectarian issues emerged in the election of 1859.(G. Serle) However, the Duffy/O'Shanassy link strained, possibly, because O'Shanassy departed Ireland before the turmoil of 1848, while Duffy was involved in the 1848s troubles.(O'Brien) O'Shanassy was Premier again from November 1861. By the 1860s O'Shanassy had become a thorough-going conservative and his government was bitterly opposed by the liberal newspaper ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' and its fiery proprietor, David Syme. In retaliation, O'Shanassy withdrew government advertising from the paper. O'Shanassy's government was finally defeated in June 1863 over the land reform issue, and he never held office again. O'Shanassy was awarded a papal knighthood in 1859, but news of that award did not reach Victoria until early 1860. The award was pilloried in the ''

Melbourne Punch ''Melbourne Punch'' (from 1900, simply titled ''Punch'') was an Australian illustrated magazine founded by Edgar Ray and Frederick Sinnett, and published from August 1855 to December 1925. The magazine was modelled closely on '' Punch'' of Lon ...

'' (19 January 1860, p. 209). Further, he received CMG in 1869 and a in 1874. He retired from Parliament in February 1883, shortly before his death in Boroondara, Victoria, Australia.

References

*Geoff Browne, ''A Biographical Register of the Victorian Parliament, 1900-84'', Government Printer, Melbourne, 1985 * *Don Garden, ''Victoria: A History'', Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1984 *Elizabeth Malcolm & Dianne Hall, ''A New History of the Irish in Australia'', University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2018. *Antony O'Brien, ''Shenanigans on the Ovens Goldfields: the 1859 election'', Artillery Publishing, Hartwell, 2005. *Geoffery Serle,''The Golden Age: A History of Colonial Victoria, 1851-1861'', Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1963. (plus numerous reprints) *Kathleen Thompson and Geoffrey Serle, ''A Biographical Register of the Victorian Parliament, 1856-1900'', Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1972 * Raymond Wright, ''A People's Counsel. A History of the Parliament of Victoria, 1856-1990'', Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1992 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Oshanassy, John Premiers of Victoria 1818 births 1883 deaths 19th-century Irish people Politicians from Melbourne Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Members of the Victorian Legislative Council Chief secretaries of Victoria People from Thurles Politicians from County Tipperary 19th-century Australian politicians Irish emigrants to colonial Australia Australian bankers 19th-century Australian businesspeople