Hon Archibald Peake

Archibald Henry Peake

15 January 1859

Community Leadership Independence Coalition

Former Member

Alexandra

House of Assembly

22 May 1897

Archibald Peake came to South Australia from Victoria, where his family had migrated from London. He represented Albert in the Lower House from 1897-1915 where he supported progressive legislation, before forming a Liberal-Labor coalition government with Price in 1905, with Price as Premier and Peake as Treasurer and Attorney-General. Peake was prominent in the Liberal and Democratic Union (LDU), formed in 1906, and assumed the Premiership on Price's death in 1909, filling his ministry with LDU members.

Defeated in 1910 after Labor's election victory, Peake rallied the anti-Labor parties to form the Liberal Union (LU), relinquishing many of the principles of the LDU in the process. The Liberals won a majority in 1912 and Peake became Premier and Treasurer. This government acted to increase the accessibility of Legislative Council membership and created the Industrial Arbitration Court, which was later responsible for the introduction of the minimum wage for workers. Described as one of South Australia's ablest Premiers, Peake's greatest achievement was the locking of the Murray River in co-operation with New South Wales, Victorian and Federal Governments, but his most enduring legacy to South Australia was his participation in the polarisation of the state's politics into a two Party system.

He lost to Labor in 1915 due to perceived 'German' sympathies, in an election which also cost him his own seat. He was considered so critical to Party leadership that a colleague resigned the seat of Alexandra to him, allowing Peake to retake Cabinet over the conscription issue in 1917, after forming a coalition with the Nationalists. In 1918, after winning a majority, women's rights in South Australia were improved by changes to the divorce laws, before personal and political disagreements led to the dissolution of the coalition in 1920. This stressful time took its toll on Peake and he died in April of that year of a cerebral haemorrhage.

A portrait of Peake, by George A. J. Webb, unveiled in 1923, hangs in Parliament House.

06 April 1920