Electoral district of Ovens

For the electorate of the old unicameral Legislative Council 1851-56, see Electoral district of Ovens (Victorian Legislative Council).

Ovens (or The Ovens) was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly^[1][2] in the Australian state of Victoria from 1856 to 1927. It was based in northern Victoria, bordered by the Ovens River in the south-west and included the town of Beechworth, Victoria.^[3]

Ovens Victoria—Legislative Assembly
Location in Victoria, 1856
State	Victoria
Created	1856
Abolished	1927
Namesake	The Ovens
Demographic	Rural

The district of Ovens was one of the initial districts of the first Victorian Legislative Assembly, 1856.^[1] It was defined in the Victorian Constitution Act 1855 (taking effect at the 1856 elections) as:

Commencing at the Junction of Whorouly Creek with the River Ovens, bounded on the West by a Line bearing North Twenty Miles, thence on the North by a Line bearing East to the Little River, on the East by the Little River to its Source in the dividing Range, thence by the dividing Range and a Line South to a Point on the Ovens River Nine Miles above its Junction with the River Buckland ; on the South by a Line from the last-mentioned Point to the Source of the River Buckland, thence by the dividing Range to the Source of the River Buffalo, and again on the South and West by that River and the Ovens to the commencing Point.^[4]

Ovens was superseded by Electoral district of Wangaratta and Ovens in 1927.^[2]

Members for Ovens

One member initially,^[1] two from the increase in members of 1859.^[5] One again from the redistribution of 1889 when the Electoral district of Wangaratta and Rutherglen, amongst others, was created.

Member 1	Term	Member 2	Term
Daniel Cameron [a][1]	Nov. 1856 – Mar. 1857
John Wood[7]	Apr. 1857[b] – July 1861
		Alexander Keefer[8]	Oct. 1859 – Mar. 1860
		John Donald[9]	Mar. 1860[b] – July 1861
William Charles Weekes[10]	Aug. 1861 – Aug. 1864	Peter Wright	Aug. 1861 – Aug. 1864
George Verney Smith[8]	Nov. 1864 – Apr. 1877	George Kerferd[11]	Nov. 1864 – Jan. 1886
George Billson[12]	May 1877 – June 1880
William Zincke[13]	July 1880 – Feb. 1883
George Billson[12]	Feb. 1883 – Feb. 1886
Joseph Ferguson[14]	Mar. 1886 – Mar. 1889	Ferguson Tuthill[15]	Jan. 1886[b] – Mar. 1889

Single Member District 1889–1927
Member		Party	Term
	Joseph Ferguson	Unaligned	1889–1894
	J. A. Isaacs	Unaligned	1894–1902
	Thomas Ashworth	Unaligned	1902–1904
	Alfred Billson	Unaligned	1904–1916
		Nationalist	1916–1924
		Liberal	1924–1927

1. Daniel Cameron was also member for Ovens in the unicameral Victorian Legislative Council December 1855 to March 1856.^[6]
2. by-election

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Ovens