George Prendergast

Who was George Prendergast?

George Michael Prendergast, Australian politician, was the 28th Premier of Victoria. He was born to Irish emigrant parents in Adelaide, but he grew up in Stawell in the Wimmera district of Victoria. Known to his friends as "Mick," he was apprenticed as a printer, and worked as a compositor in Ballarat, Sydney and Narrandera before settling in Melbourne in 1887. A member of the Typographical Association, he represented that union at the Melbourne Trades Hall, of which he was President in 1893.

Prendergast was one of the first Labor members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly: he was elected for North Melbourne in 1894. He was defeated in 1897 by William Watt, but regained the seat in 1900. He then held it until it was abolished in 1927, when he shifted to Footscray, which he represented until his death. In all he was an MP for 40 years, but was noted more for his fiery stump oratory than any real ability: the historian Kate White calls him "mediocre." In 1904 be became the first leader of the Parliamentary Labor Party.