Governor of Victoria

The **Governor of Victoria** represents the head of state, Charles III in the Australian state of Victoria. The Governor performs the same tasks at the state level as the Governor-General of Australia at the national level. The Governor's office and official residence is Government House in central Melbourne.

The current Governor of Victoria is Margaret Gardner.

## Powers

In a Westminster system of parliamentary government, the Governor nearly always acts on the advice of the head of the elected government, the Premier of Victoria. However, the Governor retains the reserve powers of the Crown, and has the right to dismiss the Premier.

## Related offices

There is also a Lieutenant-Governor and an Administrator. The Chief Justice of Victoria is the Administrator, unless he or she is the Lieutenant-Governor, in which case, the next most senior judge is the Administrator. The Lieutenant-Governor takes on the job of the Governor when that post is vacant, when the Governor is out of the State, or is unable to act. The Administrator takes on those duties if both the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor are unable to act.

## Australian-born governors

The first Australian (and Victorian) born Governor of Victoria was Sir Henry Winneke (appointed 1974). Apart from Dr Davis McCaughey (b. Ireland), Professor David de Kretser (born in Ceylon) and Alex Chernov (born in Lithuania), all governors since 1974 have been born in Australia.

### Lieutenant-governors

Before 1855, the Governor-General of New South Wales appointed Lieutenant-Governors to Victoria.

|width="4%"|**No.**|width="10%"|**Image**|width="50%"|**Lieutenant-Governor**|width="20%"|**From**|width="20%"|**To**|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1||Captain Charles La Trobe|1851|1854||||||
|2||Captain Sir Charles Hotham KCB RN|1854|1855||||||

### Governors

|width="4%"|**No.**|width="10%"|**Image**|width="50%"|**Governor**|width="20%"|**From**|width="20%"|**To**|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1||Captain Sir Charles Hotham KCB RN|22 May 1855|31 December 1855||||||
|2||Sir Henry Barkly GCMG KCB FRS FRGS|26 December 1856|10 September 1863||||||
|3||Sir Charles Darling KCB|11 September 1863|7 May 1866||||||
|4||The Rt Hon. Viscount Canterbury GCMG KCB|15 August 1866|2 March 1873||||||
|5||The Rt Hon. Sir George Bowen GCMG|30 July 1873|22 February 1879||||||
|6||The Most Hon. Marquess of Normanby GCB GCMG PC|29 April 1879|18 April 1884||||||
|7||The Rt Hon. Lord Loch GCMG KCB|15 July 1884|15 November 1889||||||
|8||The Most Hon. Earl of Hopetoun KT GCMG GCVO PC|28 November 1889|12 July 1895||||||
|9||The Rt Hon. Earl Brassey GCB JP DL TD|25 October 1895|31 March 1900||||||
|10||The Rt Hon. Baron Sydenham of Combe GCSI GCIE GCMG GBE|10 December 1901|24 November 1903||||||
|11||The Hon. Major-General Sir Reginald Talbot KCB|25 April 1904|6 July 1908||||||
|12||The Rt Hon. Lord Carmichael GCSI GCIE KCMG DL|27 July 1908|19 May 1911||||||
|13||The Rt Hon. Sir John Fuller Bt KCMG|24 May 1911|24 November 1913||||||
|14||The Rt Hon. Lord Sheffield KCMG|23 February 1914|30 January 1920||||||
|15||The Rt Hon. Earl of Stradbroke KCMG CB CVO CBE VD TD|24 February 1921|7 April 1926||||||
|16||The Rt Hon. Lord Somers KCMG DSO MC|28 June 1926|23 June 1931||||||
|17||The Rt Hon. Lord Huntingfield KCMG|14 May 1934|4 April 1939||||||
|18||The Rt Hon. Major General The Lord Dugan GCMG CB DSO|17 July 1939|20 February 1949||||||
|19||General Sir Reginald Dallas Brooks GCMG KCB KCVO DSO|18 October 1949|7 May 1963||||||
|20||Major General Sir Rohan Delacombe KCMG KBE CB DSO|8 May 1963|31 May 1974||||||
|21||The Hon. Sir Henry Winneke AC KCMG KCVO OBE QC|1 June 1974|28 February 1982||||||
|22||Rear Admiral Sir Brian Murray KCMG AO|1 March 1982|3 October 1985||||||
|23||The Reverend Dr Davis McCaughey AC|18 February 1986|22 April 1992||||||
|24||The Hon. Richard McGarvie AC QC|23 April 1992|23 April 1997||||||
|25||The Hon. Sir James Gobbo AC CVO QC|24 April 1997|31 December 2000||||||
|26||Mr. John Landy AC CVO MBE|1 January 2001|7 April 2006||||||
|27||Professor David de Kretser AC|7 April 2006|7 April 2011||||||
|28||The Hon. Alex Chernov AC QC|8 April 2011|Present||||||

## Other  websites

- The Official Website of the Governor of Victoria
- Governors of Victoria, Parliament of Victoria