List of Prime Ministers of Australia (graphical)

This is a graphical list of Prime Ministers of Australia from when the first Prime Minister, Edmund Barton, took office in 1901, until the present day.

20th century

21st century

Career-based timeline

This timeline shows most of the early life, the political career and death of each Prime Minister of Australia from 1901. The first Prime Minister was Edmund Barton in the early 20th century.^[1]

Unlike countries where the leader is elected directly to the highest political office of a separate executive, the Prime Minister must first establish a political career in the Australian Parliament and typically serves many years in the House of Representatives (or in the Senate as with John Gorton) before becoming Prime Minister, and in some cases for many years afterwards.

Since 1901, all time in parliamentary service before being Prime Minister has been in the House of Representatives, apart from John Gorton's period as a member of the Government while in the Senate 1950-68. After becoming Prime Minister he was elected to the House by winning a by-election.

Key

• Each dark coloured bar denotes the time spent as Prime Minister
• A light colour denotes time spent in Parliament before or after serving as Prime Minister
• A grey colour bar denotes the time the Prime Minister spent outside Parliament, either before or after their political career

Notable moments

• changed party: Hughes (twice)
• died in office: Lyons, Curtin, Holt
• died shortly after leaving office: Chifley
• left Parliament on leaving office: Barton, Bruce, Menzies, Fraser, Hawke, Keating, Howard, Gillard
• long career after being Prime Minister: Hughes, Scullin, Page, Fadden
• served as Prime Minister after an interruption to their political career: Scullin, Curtin, Chifley
• lived for more than twenty years after leaving Parliament: Watson, Cook, Bruce, Forde, Gorton, Whitlam, Fraser
• former Prime Minister still living: Hawke, Keating, Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Abbott

Timeline

References