page_title: Victorian Legislative Council
section_title: First Legislative Council
hierarchical_section_title: Victorian Legislative Council / History / First Legislative Council
caption_attribution_description: English: Victorian Legislative Council districts 1851
context_page_description: The Victorian Legislative Council is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia; the lower house being the Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The Legislative Council serves as a house of review, in a similar fashion to its federal counterpart, the Australian Senate. Although it is possible for legislation to be first introduced in the Council, most bills receive their first hearing in the Legislative Assembly.
  The presiding officer of the chamber is the President of the Legislative Council. The Council presently comprises 40 members serving four-year terms from eight electoral regions each with five members. With each region electing 5 members using the single transferable vote, the quota in each region for election, after distribution of preferences, is 16.7%. Ballot papers for elections for the Legislative Council have above and below the line voting. Voting above the line requires only a '1' being placed in one box, and group voting tickets voting has applied since 1988. Semi-optional voting is available if a voter votes below the line.
context_section_description: The separate colony of Victoria was proclaimed on 1 July 1851 and writs for the election of the first Legislative Council were issued at the same time for the 20 elected members. The Legislative Council initially consisted of 30 members, 10 of which were nominated by the Lieutenant-Governor and 20 were elected from 16 "electoral districts", with Melbourne electing 3 members, and Geelong and the county of Bourke electing 2 members each. The electors were male British subjects over the age of 21 years, who owned freehold valued at £100 or a householder paying rent of £10 per year, both very large sums at the time. Members of the Legislative Council were unpaid, further restricting participation of those without independent means. It took some time before the Legislative Council was elected and ready to sit. The Legislative Council met for the first time in November 1851 at St Patrick's Hall, which had been built in 1847 in Bourke Street, Melbourne. The Legislative Council sat there until the opening of the Parliament House in 1856. James Frederick Palmer was the presiding officer of the Council, then called speaker.
  The Legislative Council was expanded in 1853 to 18 nominees and 36 elected members. A further expansion of the Council occurred in 1855, when 8 new members were elected from five new electorates, with one new nominee.
  The first Legislative Council existed for five years and was responsible for at least three significant and enduring contributions to the parliamentary system of Victoria:
  it drafted the Constitution of Victoria, which provides the framework for the system of government in Victoria;
  it introduced the secret ballot. The Victorian Electoral Act 1856 introduced secret ballots on 19 March 1856, an innovation at the time but now common around the world; and
  it ordered the construction of the Victorian Parliament House in Melbourne.
  The new constitution was approved by the Legislative Council in March 1854 and was sent to Britain where it was passed by the United Kingdom Parliament as the Victoria Constitution Act 1855, received Royal Assent on 16 July 1855 and was proclaimed in Victoria on 23 November 1855. The Constitution established a Westminster-style system of responsible government that continues in Victoria today.
caption: VLC electoral districts, 1851–1854
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