Byrne Street
by David Thompson
Byrne Street is that short street near the Port Melbourne Tennis Club that provides access to Garden City via Poolman Street. It is named for Robert Byrne – Councillor, Victorian Member of Parliament, auctioneer and landowner.
Robert Byrne was born in Waterford, Ireland in 1821. He emigrated to the United States in 1848 working as a general auctioneer in New York City and Boston. He arrived in Melbourne in 1853 and established himself as an auctioneer in Sandridge where he purchased many parcels of land. The Sandridge Rate Book for 1861 has him as the owner/occupier of a six room building (plus kitchen) in Bay Street with a stable on the land that he owned next door and more of his land on the other side of the main building. This is a small example of the land he owned in Sandridge.
The 1865 Sands and McDougall Directory lists Byrne as an auctioneer at the corner of Spring and Nott Streets, Sandridge and in Collins Street, Melbourne. In later years he appears to have based his auctioneering business exclusively in Collins Street.
On 24 July 1856, Sandridge, which had been part of Lonsdale Ward within the City of Melbourne, was proclaimed as a seperate ward known as Macarthur Ward. Byrne was nominated to stand in the election which was held at the Chusan Hotel, Bay Street on Thursday 2 October 1856. He came fourth behind Charles M Ingles, Henry Charles Farrell and Capt Daniel McCallum who were duly elected representatives for the new ward.
During their first City of Melbourne council meeting on 6 October, a petition from the citizens of Macarthur Ward was presented requesting the appointment of an alderman for the ward from within the three elected councillors. Cr Farrell was elected as Alderman leading to a vacancy for the third councillor position. Since Robert Byrne had finished fourth in the election he was in the box seat to fill the vacancy and so it was that he was elected unopposed at a meeting of electors held at noon on 15 October 1856 at Garton’s Pier Hotel.
In April the following year Cr McCallum resigned and was replaced by Dr Andrew Plummer then in August Cr Ingles was also elected as an Alderman and was replaced Edward James Crockford unopposed.
Byrne’s term as Councillor lasted barely more than a year as he had to retire by rotation and was defeated on 4 November 1857 by Crockford’s brother, John Edward, by 7 votes amidst allegations of bribery with a report to the effect that ‘£5 notes were flying about‘.
The movement for further separation from the City of Melbourne to form Sandridge as an independent suburb continued after the establishment of Macarthur Ward with Byrne prominent in the public meetings, the Separation Committee to coordinate action on the issue and the deputations to the Governor. Eventually the Municipal District of Sandridge was proclaimed on 11 July 1860.
The events during the first municipal election that occurred over the first few days of August 1860 were extraordinary at least from today’s point of view. A meeting at the All Nations Hotel, Nott Street on 1 August determined that there would be seven councillors and nominations were made. Dr Plummer acted as Chairman, effectively the Returning Officer, but was also nominated as a candidate. Byrne was also among the nineteen men who stood for the seven positions on Council. Plummer put each name to the vote and tallied the results that saw himself among the seven successful candidates and Byrne in 9th place. Plummer then announced the first seven gentlemen elected unless a poll was demanded. A poll was asked for and set for the following day between 8am and 4pm.
On election day, Plummer closed polling half an hour before it was due to finish when a mob of people rushed the voting box. There were fears that many were not eligible to vote so Plummer visited the Attorney-General to seek advice on the issue and on his return to Sandridge that evening he announced that he would announce the action to be taken regarding the election the following morning.
On Friday, 3 August, Plummer returned to the All Nations Hotel with the assessors and the votes that had been sealed the previous evening were counted with the result that the numbers were almost identical to the scrutineers count from the previous day when the disturbance took place. The Attorney-General’s advice was that the election must be declared in the same state it was when the box was rushed. Plummer declared William Morley, David Thomas, Thomas Swallow, himself, Samuel George Issacs, Joseph Weaver Allen and Henry Glynn duly elected. Byrne finished in eleventh place.
A meeting to determine what to do about the supposedly illegal election was held on the evening of Monday 6 August. Robert Byrne made the first proposal, in essence, ‘… the election, held on 2 August, is rendered illegal by the Returning Officer, Dr Plummer, and one of the assessors, Mr Murphy, being candidates; and also the poll being closed … early …‘. Further speakers proposed what should happen next including the elected candidates resigning, testing the matter in the Supreme Court if they refused to do so and electing a committee to carry out the resolutions of the meeting. Byrne was elected to that committee. History shows they were ultimately unsuccessful and the Sandridge Council held their first meeting at the old Police Court on Thursday, 16 August 1860.
Byrne had more success the following year as he was one of the three councillors elected 2 August 1861 alongside Dr Plummer and Frederick Poolman.
He resigned on 26 February 1864 to stand for the seat of Sandridge in the Legislative Assembly. Byrne lost narrowly by two votes to Melbourne merchant, David Moore on polling day, 3 November 1864 with Charles M Ingles finishing third.
Byrne disputed the result in December petitioning the Elections and Qualifications Committee alleging that Moore had garnered votes through the provision of gifts, cash and in-kind, to potential voters and that many of the voters were not legally entitled to vote. Interestingly, the Returning Officer was Dr Andrew Plummer. The Committee took evidence over several sessions in January and February 1865 with the end result being that Byrne was still one vote behind so Moore’s election was confirmed.
In January 1866, Byrne stood for the Electoral District of Crowlands that covered a large slice of the state from Great Western, north through Stawell, Navarre and St Arnaud to Swan Hill. In this case Byrne and Andrew Love were elected unopposed to the two positions.
Perhaps Byrne’s most controversial time in politics came in September 1869 when in response to James McCulloch appointing George Rolfe to a position in his ministry despite Rolfe not currently being a Member of Parliament, Byrne proposed a motion censuring the government. The motion effectively became a vote of no confidence which led to John Alexander Macpherson forming government with Byrne as Treasurer.
Macpherson decidedly won the election in October 1869 but his government only lasted until 8 April 1870 when he resigned as First Secretary and was replaced by his predecessor McCulloch. Byrne didn’t fare so well. He was branded a traitor and the leader of the mutiny by some Liberals and was soundly defeated in the Crowlands election by George Rolfe by a margin of 437 votes.
Robert Byrne died in 1909 aged 88.
Sources
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1861 Sandridge Rate Book, PMHPS Collection
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