when was the first australian prime minister elected
Sir Edmund Barton 1901
title: Prime Minister of Australia text: prime minister, otherwise William McMahon63. Robert Menzies was the oldest person to ever be prime minister, leaving office at 71 years old. The longest-serving Prime Minister was Sir Robert Menzies, who served in office twice: from 26 April 1939 to 28 August 1941, and again from 19 December 1949 to 26 January 1966. In total Robert Menzies spent 18 years, 5 months and 12 days in office. He served under the United Australia Party and the Liberal Party respectively. The shortest-serving Prime Minister was Frank Forde, who was appointed to the position on 6 July 1945 after the death of title: Barton Government text: selected as Australia's first Governor-General, and the appointment of the first Cabinet was put in train. Edmund Barton became the newly Federated Australian nation's first Prime Minister at a grand ceremony in Centennial Park, Sydney, on 1 January 1901. He and his cabinet were sworn in by Australia's first Governor-General, Lord Hopetoun before an estimated crowd of 250,000 people. Hopetoun had first offered the position to the Premier of New South Wales Sir William Lyne (an opponent of Federation), but the other members of Cabinet and the general population saw Barton as the logical choice. The appointment was temporary, to title: Prime Minister of Australia text: the governing party or senior coalition party elects an alternative party leader. This has resulted in the party leaders from the Country Party (now named National Party) being appointed as Prime Minister, despite being the smaller party of their coalition. This occurred when Earle Page became caretaker Prime Minister following the death of Joseph Lyons in 1939, and when John McEwen became caretaker Prime Minister following the disappearance of Harold Holt in 1967. However in 1941, Arthur Fadden became the leader of the Coalition and subsequently Prime Minister by the agreement of both coalition parties, despite being the leader of title: Historical rankings of Prime Ministers of Australia text: prime ministers during that time were excluded from consideration, but the serving prime minister, John Howard, was included. The participants in the survey were Judith Brett (La Trobe), Greg Craven (Curtin), David Day (La Trobe), Michael Duffy (freelance), Brian Galligan (Melbourne), Ian Hancock (ANU), John Hirst (La Trobe), Carol Johnson (Adelaide), Stuart Macintyre (Melbourne), Alistair Mant (freelance), Andrew Parkin (Flinders), Tom Stannage (Curtin), Paul Strangio (Monash), James Walter (Monash), and Patrick Weller (Griffith). Geoffrey Blainey, Marian Simms, and several others were invited to participate, but declined. In 2010, a team of researchers from Monash University asked "145 academics that were title: 1901 Australian federal election text: 1901 Australian federal election Federal elections for the inaugural Parliament of Australia were held in Australia on Friday 29 March and Saturday 30 March 1901. The elections followed Federation and the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. All 75 seats in the Australian House of Representatives, six of which were uncontested, as well as all 36 seats in the Australian Senate, were up for election. After the initial confusion of the Hopetoun Blunder, the first Prime Minister of Australia, Edmund Barton, went into the inaugural 1901 federal election as the appointed head of a Protectionist Party