Duncan Gillies

Who was Duncan Gillies?

Duncan Gillies, Australian colonial politician, was the 14th Premier of Victoria.

Gillies was born at Overnewton near Glasgow, Scotland, where his father had a market garden. He was sent to the high school until he was about 14, when he entered an office in Glasgow. In 1852 he arrived in Melbourne and travelled to the goldfields at Ballarat, where he worked first as a miner and later as a businessman and company director.

Gillies was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Ballarat West in 1861, holding this seat until 1868. A conservative, he was President of the Board of Lands and Works in the short-lived government of Charles Sladen in 1868, which cost him his seat at Ballarat, a strongly liberal constituency. He was elected for Maryborough 1870-1877, Rodney 1877-1889, Eastern Suburbs 1889-1894 and Toorak 1897-1903. He was Commissioner for Railways and Roads in the ministries of James Francis and George Kerferd from 1872 to 1875 and Agriculture Minister in the third government of Sir James McCulloch in 1875-1877.

In both the first and second Service governments Gillies was Commissioner for Railways and Vice-President of the Board of Lands and Works. He was also Minister for Public Instruction 1884-1886. When Service retired at the time of the 1886 elections, Gillies succeeded him as Premier, forming a coalition government with the liberal leader Alfred Deakin, and winning a comfortable majority over a divided opposition at the elections.