John Allan

Who was John Allan?

John Allan, Australian politician, was the 29th Premier of Victoria. He was born near Lancefield, where his father was a farmer of Scottish origin, and educated at state schools. He took up wheat and dairy farming at Wyuna and was director of a butter factory at Kyabram. In 1892 he married Annie Stewart, with whom he had six children.

Northern Victoria was a centre of the movement of militant small farmers who founded first the Victorian Farmers Union and later the Country Party as an outlet for their grievances. In 1917 Allan was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as VFU member for Rodney, a district centred on Echuca. In 1919 he became a founding member of the Country Party and its first parliamentary leader, and was a member of its Victorian Central Council. Although the Country Party was highly critical of the ruling Nationalist Party, it was a conservative party and disliked the Labor Party even more, so it usually found itself in an uneasy alliance with the Nationalists.

In 1921 Allan withdrew his support from the Nationalist government of Harry Lawson, over the issue of abolishing the state-run wheat-marketing system which had been introduced during World War I, and which benefited small farmers by keeping wheat prices high. The result was a bitter state election in which the Nationalists won 31 seats, Labor 21 and the Country Party 12. The Country Party then split over the issue of whether to support Lawson or Labor, with Allan in favour of Lawson and a faction led Albert Dunstan favouring an alliance with Labor.