Kyabram honours John Allan, first Country Party premier

He remained in Victoria’s top job until May 20, 1927.

John arrived in the district as a seven-year-old in 1873, after his father, Andrew, selected land here. The Allans were among the earliest settlers in the region, establishing one of the finest wheat and dairy farms in the Goulburn Valley.

Kyabram’s main artery, Allan St, is named after Andrew, and to avoid confusion, the street named for the former premier is John Allan Rd.

The service was attended by multiple generations of descendants, including Bishop Graeme Rutherford, who spoke at the service, and Pru Jones, the youngest immediate family member there, who is expecting her third child on December 20 to continue the local connection.

Guest speaker was state Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh, who told the gathering he felt privileged to be standing in the footsteps of one of the earliest figures of the Country Party in Victoria.

“John was elected to the parliament as a Victorian Farmers’ Union candidate in 1917, and those VFU MPs would go on to become the cornerstone of the Country Party/The Nationals, in this state,” Mr Walsh said.

“And it was as a Country Party member he became our first premier — a remarkable achievement at what was a turbulent time in Victorian politics, with parties changing identities and alliances as the state was growing so rapidly,” he said.

Before becoming premier, Mr Allan was also a Deakin Shire councillor, commissioner of the Rodney Water Trust, chairman of the Kyabram Butter Factory — and first leader of the then-VFU.

The Kyabram Historical Society planned the service and member Clare Jackson amused the audience with snippets taken from various newspapers during Premier Allan’s tenure — including the night he was at Government House with the governor and visiting royalty when he interrupted the reception to compliment the scones and suggest his wife would love the recipe.

The governor’s aide-de-camp was summoned, who enlisted the butler to track down the chef to find which cook made the scones — and Mrs Allan got the recipe.

Mr Walsh said northern Victoria was a hotbed of political reform even before Mr Allan took centre stage.

He said Mr Allan’s father, Andrew, was a driving force behind the Kyabram Reform Movement at the turn of the century, which demanded fewer politicians and saw, within two years, the numbers of MPs slashed from 151 to 99.

However, the movement, and its allies, also forced pay cuts across the public service, which in the early 1900s was dominated by the Victorian Railways.

The cuts became law, but for years after, Mr Walsh said parcels travelling by train to Kyabram would go mysteriously astray.

“His other major campaign was to get people out of Melbourne and into regional Victoria — at that time the split was around 50/50,” Mr Walsh said.

“Today it is closer to 75/25, so that’s one fight he didn’t win.”

“The 1927 state election saw a big swing to Labor, which won as a minority government.”

John Allan would return to cabinet in the 1932 United Australia Party-Country Party as agriculture minister but in 1935, when that government continued with Labor support, he refused to serve any further.

“He said at the time, in his eyes, ‘the Labor Party was suitable only for being kept out of office’,” Mr Walsh said.

“A defiant John Allan remained on the backbench until his death in 1936 at the age of 69 — he was a stalwart for regional Victoria and the state was the better for his term in office.”