Victoria
Henry Bolte
A statue of Henry Bolte, at Spring Street, Treasury Gardens, East Melbourne.
Henry Bolte (1908-1990) was a legendary figure in the history of politics in Victoria.
His grandparents Johann Georg Bolte and Theresia Caroline Fehring both grew up in the village of Zwergen, about 20 kms north of the German city of Kassel (at that time part of the territory of the Electorate of Hesse / Kurfürstentum Hessen). Johann Georg left Germany and moved to England, presumably because of the danger of war between Hessen-Kassel and Prussia, or because of poor economic conditions at the time in Hessen-Kassel.[1] (A few years later Hessen-Kassel was overrun by Prussian troops in the course of the Austro-Prussian War.) Johann spent a few years in England then emigrated to Australia in 1852, perhaps due to the attraction of the goldrush in Victoria.[2] Theresia emigrated separately in the same year and they both found their way to South Australia. Johann encountered Theresia at ‘Germantown’ (this probably referred to Hahndorf), and they married in Adelaide in January of 1855.[3]
Theresia and Johann eventually returned to Victoria, where their twelfth and last child, the father of Henry Bolte, was born in 1876 at Happy Valley (about 30 km southwest of Ballarat).
Their grandson Henry Edward Bolte was born in 1908 and was six years old when the First World War broke out in 1914. He had German grandparents in both the paternal and maternal lines of his ancestry. Many years later he still remembered the resentment he felt about the hostility he experienced from other young people because of his German background. While he was growing up in Skipton his family was considered “Germans” even though his grandparents had arrived in Australia way back in 1852. He told an interviewer: “People today don't realise what feeling there was in Australia during the first World War. It was unreal.”[4]
Henry Bolte believed that this hostility he experienced during the First World War toughened his resilience, making it easier for him to handle political pressures later in his career.[5] He was Victoria’s longest-serving premier (17 years). The Encyclopedia Britannica described Bolte as “a shrewd, earthy and assertive leader”.[6]
A significant bridge in Melbourne's traffic network was named after Henry Bolte. The Bolte Bridge is a large road bridge spanning the Yarra River and Victoria Harbour in the Docklands precinct to the west of Melbourne's city centre. It was opened in 1999.
The Bolte Bridge, with the name displayed, and Melbourne in the background.
♦ Notes:
1. Bolte, Phil et al (2003), p.7
2. Bolte, Phil et al (2003), p.8
3. Bolte, Phil et al (2003), p.8
4. Prior (1990), p.5
5. Prior (1990), pp.5-6
6. Waterson, D.B., Prescott, J.R. (2025, February 17). Victoria. Encyclopedia Britannica. <https://www.britannica.com/place/Victoria-state-Australia>. Accessed 30/10/2018.
♦ References:
Bolte, Phil & Nyelva Carnegie, with Wilma & Eric Marshman (compilers & editors). (2003). Bolte Pioneering Families: In the Western District of Victoria & the Central West of New South Wales. Carlingford (N.S.W.) : Bolte Family History Project.
Prior, Tom. (1990). Bolte by Bolte. Melbourne : Craftsman Publishing.
Dunstan, David. 'Bolte, Sir Henry Edward (1908–1990)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, <https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bolte-sir-henry-edward-12227/text21931>, published first in hardcopy 2007, accessed online 14 December 2024.