JACINTA ALLAN has officially become the third Bendigo-based deputy premier of Victoria in 100 years after being sworn in for the coveted role.
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"I'm really humbled and proud to have been endorsed by my colleagues as deputy premier and to take on this next challenge," she said.
As she inches a step closer to the highest office in the state, we take a look at other Bendigo-based deputies who have come before her.
Our man from the party of 'political prostitutes'
Before he seized the keys to the premier's office in a move Liberal Party faithful were furious about for decades, Sir Albert Dunstan was a farmer and Bendigo district resident.
He represented the seat of Eaglehawk from 1920 for what would eventually become the Nationals, but which had a series of names and we will call the Country Party.
"A short, stocky man, with shrewd blue eyes and a 'curiously frog-like mouth', Dunstan was a forthright and effective speaker," historian JB Paul writes in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
"He was to become known as an unruffled political fighter and for his ability to make lightning assessments of the practical possibilities of any situation."
By 1935, Dunstan was deputy leader of a coalition government under conservative premier Sir Stanley Argyle.
Argyle was in charge of the United Australia Party (no relation to Clive Palmer's modern day party), which would eventually rebrand itself as the Liberal Party.
All was not right in this coalition. The UAP refused to give its partner more ministries.
Help was at hand from the Labor party, which disliked Argyle and figured it could at least influence Dunstan if it backed a Country Party government.
Dunstan presided over a party that a later Liberal party premier described as "political prostitutes", which might give you an idea of what happened next.
The leader of these prostitutes held the premiership until 1945 mostly with Labor's backing, but later with an "unhappy marriage of convenience" with the UAP, according to JB Paul.
Labor man stymied by 1950s split
Meanwhile, the second of Bendigo's deputy premiers was making a name for himself on the city's council.
Leslie William (Bill) Galvin was Bendigo's mayor over 1944 and 1945.
"He smokes, likes a beer, has a bet now and then and is a keen sport", according to a journalist from the era.
Historian Charles Fahey said he was not a man given to airs and graces and was well known as a member of Golden Square's football club and other sporting groups.
"I think he was considered a fairly down to earth guy," he said.
The Scotch College graduate had trained as a railways fitter and turner and worked through the ranks of the union movement in Bendigo.
His mate and Labor leader John Cain Snr urged him to run for Bendigo at the 1945 election.
Galvin rose through the ranks there too, becoming president of the lands and works board.
"That was quite important in the 1940s when governments were introducing irrigation works and soldier settlement schemes," Dr Fahey said.
This was a period when Victoria was recovering from a crippling drought and trying to find space for returning World War Two soldiers and their families, so you did not put just anyone in that role, Dr Fahey said.
Galvin became deputy leader of the party after it lost government in 1947, then deputy premier in 1952, Dr Fahey said.
Trouble was brewing, though.
The Labor Party was about to break apart over how to deal with communists in the union movement.
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That split was felt deeply in places like Bendigo as anti-communist Labor voters threw their support behind a splinter group that formed the Democratic Labor Party.
"The split was incredibly bitter in Victoria, people were asked not to attend churches, some were ostracised from their community," Dr Fahey said.
The fallout proved fatal for Galvin and the remains of the Labor party, which lost the seat of Bendigo by 12 votes at the 1955 election.
Galvin wrestled the seat back three years later, but his hopes of getting the deputy leadership were dashed by a motorcycle accident. He retired in poor health in 1964 and died a few years later.
Victoria's youngest ever female parliamentarian's rise
For Jacinta Allan, a long family legacy embroiled in the early factions of the Labor party puts her in good stead to serve in the coveted role.
Daughter of two lifelong union members and granddaughter of late Bendigo Trades Hall Council president William Allan, the now deputy premier said she didn't always have ministerial prospects.
"I actually wanted to be a journalist, I applied for a job at the Bendigo Advertiser - which I clearly didn't get," she said.
"And I guess that goes with politics. I had a great interest in community, in news and in campaigning."
Ms Allan soon found her political calling in the federal public service in Canberra in 1995.
By 1999, she had her eyes set on parliament.
"We weren't really expecting to win because at the time Bendigo East was considered a strongly held Labor seat," Ms Allan said.
She narrowly defeated Liberal Michael John with a strong regional campaign which saw the coalition lose a number of country seats.
"This was off the back of a period where the Kennet Liberal National government embarked on a series of cuts and closures that really cost regional communities," Ms Allan said.
"And there was quite a strong backlash against that approach."
Now, the Bendigo native is the Victorian Labor party's longest serving Victorian minister.
"I will come up to 23 years serving in September, which is amazing," she said.
"I must confess as that much younger woman in 1999, it was never something I anticipated, because I was not expecting to win that election.
"My only goal following 1999 was to win the next election."
The challenges Ms Allan now faces in the Andrews government are numerous, as the state continues to battle with a rising COVID death toll, a looming housing crisis and extensive job shortages.
With the state election set for November, Ms Allan is keen to ensure her role lasts beyond the five months remaining.
"Going into the election, we've got a really strong agenda," she said.
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