Ernie Shepherd (politician)

Shepherd was born in Bendigo, the son of Bendigo Trades Hall Council president Alfred Shepherd. He was educated at Violet Street State School, but left school at 14 to work for import firm Robert Harper & Co., continuing to study at night at the Bendigo School of Mines. He was a pattern-maker by trade, beginning as an apprentice at the Newport Railway Workshops at 17 and remaining there until his election to parliament in 1945, by which time he had risen to the role of sub-foreman. Shepherd was a City of Footscray councillor from 1943 to 1955 and mayor from 1948 to 1949. He was also founding director of the Footscray District Housing Co-operative Society in 1945 and a municipal representative on the Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital board from 1947 to 1956, serving as board chairman 1952-56.[1][2][3][4][5]

Shepherd was also a keen sportsman, particularly in Australian rules football and swimming. He played football for the Footscray Football Club and North Melbourne Football Club seconds, was an umpire in the Victorian Football League second division, and was secretary of the Footscray Football Club in 1930 and the Footscray District Football League from 1933 to 1945. In swimming, he was secretary of the Footscray Swimming Club from 1918 to 1930, and a judge and registrar of the Victorian Amateur Swimming Association.[1][2][3]

Shepherd was elected unopposed to the new seat of Sunshine at the 1945 election following his narrow victory in a hard-fought Labor preselection.[6][7] When Labor won government under John Cain in 1952, he was promoted to Minister for Education, but the Cain government lost office in 1955 after only one term amidst the 1955 Labor split.[1] His Sunshine electorate was abolished in a redistribution at the 1955 election, and he switched to the new seat of Ascot Vale.[8][1]

Shepherd was promoted to deputy leader after Labor's 1955 defeat, at which his predecessor had lost his seat.[9][10] When Cain died in 1957, Shepherd was elected unopposed as Labor leader and Leader of the Opposition. He shifted to the existing seat of Footscray in 1958 after the Ascot Vale seat was abolished in a redistribution.[3]

Shepherd died in office in 1958. He had collapsed at the opening ceremony of a youth centre at West Footscray, and was rushed to nearby Footscray Hospital but was dead on arrival.[11] He received a state funeral and was cremated.[3]

Ern Shepherd Reserve in Maidstone, and the Shepherd Bridge, which carries Footscray Road over the Maribyrnong River, are both named for him.[3]