The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Winter-Irving, Hon. William Irving
Winter-Irving, Hon. William Irving, M.L.C., J.P., F.R.G.S., is the third son of the late John Winter, of Lauder, Berwickshire, who brought his family to Victoria in 1841, and ultimately settled in Lauderdale, Ballarat, by his marriage with Janet Margaret Irving, of Bonshaw, Scotland. He was educated at the Scotch College, Melbourne, and was brought up to pastoral pursuits, in which his father, the late Mr. John Winter, achieved very great success. In 1857 he, with his brothers, purchased Colbinabbin and other stations in the Rodney district at a cost of about £200,000; and in 1868, on a friendly dissolution of partnership, the Stanhope estate, where he still resides, fell to his share. In 1874, in conjunction with Mr. J. Ettershank, of East Loddon, Mr. Winter visited England, and successfully conducted the appeal to the Privy Council against the Crown, relative to the five shilling per acre penalty sought to be enforced against the holders of certificated lands. Mr. Winter was for some years a member of the Waranga Shire Council, being twice president, and was appointed a territorial magistrate in 1868. In 1871 he stood for the Eastern Province against Sir Francis Murphy, but ultimately retired in that gentleman's favour. In 1884, on the death of the late Sir William Mitchell, President of the Legislative Council, he was returned unopposed for the Northern Province. In 1890 Mr. Winter, who in 1868 married the only daughter of William Drayton Taylor, J.P., of Noorilim, Goulburn, assumed his mother's surname in addition to and in conjunction with his patronymic. His late brother, James Winter, of Toolamba, Murchison, who died at Norwood, near London, in 1886, was also a well-known pastoralist.