Editing History of Victoria (section)

==Colonial politics==
In 1857, reflecting the growing presence of Irish immigrants, in Victoria the [[British Empire]] had its first Catholic government leaders: [[John O'Shanassy]] as Premier, and the former [[Young Ireland]]er, [[Charles Gavan Duffy (Australian politician)|Charles Gavan Duffy]] his deputy. Melbourne's Protestant establishment was ill-prepared "to countenance so startling a novelty".<ref>McCaughey, ''Victoria's Colonial Governors'', p. 75</ref> In 1858–59, ''Melbourne Punch'' cartoons linked Duffy and O'Shanassy with images of the [[French Revolution]] to undermine their Ministry. One famous ''Punch'' image, "Citizens John and Charles", depicted the pair as French revolutionaries holding the skull and cross bone flag of the so-called ''Victorian Republic''.<ref>''Punch'', 7 January 1859, p. 5</ref>

In 1862 Duffy's Land Act attempted, but failed, through a system of extended pastoral licences, to break the land-holding monopoly of the so-called [[Squatting (Australian history)|"squatter" class]].<ref>[http://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/the-george-gavan-duffy-papers George Gavan Duffy papers], historyireland.com; accessed 6 March 2016.</ref> In 1871 Duffy led the opposition to Premier Sir [[James McCulloch]]'s plan to introduce a [[land tax]], on the grounds that it unfairly penalised small farmers, and himself was briefly Premier (June 1871 to June 1872).

In 1866, the Victorian parliament passed the "McCulloch Tariff", which was the first recognisably and substantially [[Protectionism|protectionist]] piece of legislation in [[History of tariffs in Australia|Australian tariff history]], applying 10% duties to a range of manufactured commodities; there is no evidence, however, that it had an effect on the colony's manufacturing.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Varian |first=Brian D. |title=The unavailing origin of Australian protectionism? Victoria's McCulloch Tariff of 1866 |url=https://cbe.anu.edu.au/researchpapers/CEH/WP202408.pdf |journal=Australia National University Centre for Economic History Discussion Paper |volume=2024 |issue=08}}</ref> Although, further increases in protectionism in the late nineteenth century were consequential for Victoria manufacturing.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sinclair |first=W. A. |date=1955 |title=THE TARIFF AND MANUFACTURING EMPLOYMENT IN VICTORIA, 1860–1900 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-4932.1955.tb02922.x |journal=Economic Record |language=en |volume=31 |issue=1–2 |pages=100–104 |doi=10.1111/j.1475-4932.1955.tb02922.x |issn=0013-0249}}</ref>

The first foreign military action by the colony of Victoria was to send troops and a warship to New Zealand as part of the [[New Zealand Wars]]. Troops from New South Wales had previously participated in the [[Crimean War]].