William Nicholson (Australian politician)

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William Nicholson

William Nicholson (27 February 1816 – 10 March 1865), Australian colonial politician, was the 3rd Premier of Victoria. He was known as the "father of the ballot", since he was responsible for the introduction of the secret ballot in Victoria.

Nicholson was born in 1816 in Whitehaven in Cumberland, the son of an Anglican farmer. He migrated to Australia in 1842, setting up business as a grocer in Melbourne. He was a successful businessman, and became the head of a merchant firm, W. Nicholson and Company. In 1848 Nicholson was elected to the Melbourne City Council, and served as Mayor of Melbourne 1850-51. He was a director of the Bank of Victoria and several other companies, and was Chairman of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce 1859-60. In 1860 he was also the secretary of the Royal Society of Victoria.

In 1852, Nicholson was elected to the Legislative Council for North Bourke. In 1853, Nicholson was a member of the committee which drafted the Constitution of Victoria. The Constitution was enacted in 1855, and on 18 December of that year, Nicholson moved and carried a motion which stated that any Victorian electoral act should include voting by secret ballot. This move was opposed by the government at the time, under Premier William Haines, and after the motion was passed, Haines resigned.

Although it was actually Henry Chapman who devised the secret ballot motion, the fact that Nicholson moved it gained him the credit, and when Haines resigned he was invited by the Governor of Victoria Sir Charles Hotham to form a government, but he was unable to do so, and Haines became Premier again.

In 1856, Nicholson visited England, where he was congratulated for his work in establishing the secret ballot, which had been advocated by the Chartist movement there. The system was introduced in Victoria on 19 March 1856, and in South Australia on 2 April in the same year. It was later adopted by all the other colonies. The secret ballot was known as "the Victorian ballot" for the rest of the 19th century.

Nicholson returned to Melbourne in 1858, and in 1859 was elected to the Legislative Assembly for the seat of Murray. Later that year, he shifted to Sandridge (now Port Melbourne), which he represented until 1864. When the conservative government of Premier John O'Shanassy was defeated in October 1859, Nicholson became Premier and Chief Secretary.

Much of Nicholson's premiership was spent trying to pass a bill which would have allowed small farmers to settle on the grazing lands appropriated by the squatters, but it encountered strong opposition from the Legislative Council, which was dominated by landowners. When the Council severely amended the bill there were riots outside Parliament House. This stiffened conservative resistance and the bill was eventually passed in a much weaker form, which the squatters easily evaded. This failure led to Nicholson's resignation in November 1860.

Nicholson did not hold office again. He had a severe illness in 1864, from which he never fully recovered, and he died in March 1865. He was survived by his wife Sarah and several children. Nicholson Street, a major north-south traffic artery in modern Melbourne, is named after him.

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