Nominations: Monday, 15 January 1866, Polling: Wednesday, 17 January 1866
Candidate
Votes
Votes %
Robertson, John (Defeated)
789
47.59
Windeyer, William Charles (Elected)
869
52.41
Formal Votes
1,658
Informal Votes
0
0.00
Total Votes / Turnout
1,658
21.21
Cause Category: Ministerial by-election
Notes: After his earlier resignation and re-election, Robertson was re-appointed Secretary for Lands by Cowper, causing a ministerial by-election. According to his ADB entry, he was defeated mainly because of problems with his land legislation. The Cowper government resigned several days after his defeat. The report of nominations indicates a Mr Bermingham (presumably F W Birmingham) and Richard Rogers were nominated, but neither featured in any results. Loveday and Martin (1966) p.48-49 deal with this by-election, indicating Parkes was responsible for Windeyer being nominated against his wishes and being manoeuvred into accepting his election as part of the negotiations by Parkes over the formation of the new Martin ministry.
Source: Report of nominations, 16 January 1865, p.7 col.2-4, results from SMH 18 January 1866, p.5 col.3