Opening of the First Legislative Council of Victoria, by Governor Charles Joseph LaTrobe, at St Patrick's Hall, Bourke Street West, Melbourne. November 13th 1851. From sketches taken at the time by William Strutt.

This work is based on a watercolour sketch made by William Strutt of the opening of the First Legislative Council of Victoria, formed following Victoria’s separation from New South Wales in July 1851. Consisting of thirty members – twenty elected and the remainder the Lieutenant-Governor’s appointees – the inaugural Legislative Council met for the first time on 13 November 1851 at St Patrick’s Hall on Bourke Street, which remained the government’s home until the completion of Parliament House in March 1856. Depicted are all of the Council’s members including: Edward Henty (1810–1878), a pastoralist considered the Port Phillip district’s first settler; Supreme Court judge Sir Redmond Barry (1813–1880); Sir John O’Shanassy (1818–1883), Premier of Victoria in 1858–59 and 1861–1863; William Lonsdale (1799–1864), Port Phillip’s first police magistrate; Sir William Stawell (1815–1889), who was Victoria’s attorney-general from 1851 to 1857; and John Pascoe Fawkner (1792–1869), considered one of the founders of Melbourne. Also shown is Charles Joseph La Trobe (1801–1875), Superintendent and Lieutenant-Governor of the colony from 1839 to 1854.