The Liberal and Country League (LCL) was a major political party in South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

 throughout its forty year existence. Thirty-four years were spent in government, in part due to the electoral malapportionment known as the Playmander

Playmander

The Playmander was a form of electoral malapportionment in the Australian state of South Australia, in place from 1936 to 1968. It consisted of rural districts enjoying a 2-to-1 advantage in the state parliament, even though they contained less than half of the population, as well as a change from...

, introduced after coming to power.

Created on 9 June 1932 as the result of a merger between the Liberal Federation

Liberal Federation

The Liberal Federation was a liberal conservative South Australian political party from 1922 to 1932. It stemmed from the Liberal Union's Henry Barwell. Richard Layton Butler was also premier during the party's time. It was a predecessor to the Liberal and Country League....

 and the SA branch of the Country Party

National Party of Australia

The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...

, the first LCL government was formed on 18 April 1933 under Richard Layton Butler

Richard Layton Butler

Sir Richard Layton Butler KCMG was the 31st Premier of South Australia, serving two disjunct terms in office: from 1927 to 1930, and again from 1933 to 1938....

. Traditionally a socially conservative party, the LCL contained three relatively distinct factions whose ideologies often conflicted:

• Farmers, graziers and rural property owners;
• The Adelaide Establishment of old money families and those fortunate enough, through marriage, to have been accepted by the Establishment; and
• The urban middle class, who continued to support the party although they had little say in its running. Indeed, it was not until the election of Robin Millhouse
  Robin Millhouse
  Robin Rhodes Millhouse QC has been, at various times, the South Australian Attorney-General, the first Australian Democrats parliamentarian, and the Chief Justice of both Kiribati and Nauru....
  
   in 1955 that someone from this third faction was elected to parliament. Millhouse, often considered during his term as the most progressive member of the South Australian parliament, was eventually expelled from the LCL in 1973 for his continued criticism of the conservative wing of the party.

Throughout its existence, the LCL had four parliamentary leaders:

• Butler, who served as Premier of South Australia until 5 November 1938,
• Sir Thomas Playford
  Thomas Playford IV
  Sir Thomas Playford, GCMG was a South Australian politician. He served continuously as Premier of South Australia from 5 November 1938 to 10 March 1965, the longest term of any elected government leader in the history of Australia. His tenure as premier was marked by a period of population and...
  
  , Premier from 5 November until his electoral defeat nearly 27 years later,
• Steele Hall
  Steele Hall
  Raymond Steele Hall was the 36th Premier of South Australia 1968-70, a senator for South Australia 1974-77, and federal member for the Division of Boothby 1981-96.-Biography:...
  
  , who succeeded Playford as leader of the LCL following Playford's resignation as party leader in 1966, and
• Bruce Eastick
  Bruce Eastick
  Bruce Charles Eastick is a former Australian politician. He was a Liberal and Country League and Liberal Party of Australia member of the South Australian House of Assembly from 1970 to 1993, representing the electorate of Light....
  
  .

Hall also served as Premier from 1968 to 1970. It is Playford though that the LCL would become synonymous with over his 26 years and 125 days as Premier (a world record for an elected national or regional leader).

The LCL was so identified with Playford that during election campaigns, voters were asked to vote for "The Playford Liberal and Country League". Playford gave the impression that the LCL membership were there solely to raise money and run election campaigns; he regularly ignored LCL convention decisions. This treatment of the rank and file continued to cause resentment throughout the party, the first public inkling of which was the reformation of the Country Party in 1963. Although a shadow of its former self, the reformed Country Party served as a wakeup call to Playford that there were problems within the LCL.

This split mirrored the dissatisfaction amongst the Establishment faction, which had been steadily losing its power within the party and was appalled at the "nouveau riches commoners" (such as Millhouse) that had infiltrated the parliamentary wing of the LCL. Added to this mix was the important factor that the LCL party machine had become moribund as leaders had become lulled into a false sense of security due the Playmander and extended run of election wins.

The LCL lost government for the first time in the 1965 elections

South Australian state election, 1965

State elections were held in Australia on 6 March 1965. All 39 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election. The incumbent Liberal and Country League led by Premier of South Australia Thomas Playford IV, in power since 1938, was defeated by the Australian Labor Party led by...

. While it regained government briefly under Hall, it was Playford's resignation as LCL Leader that acted as the spark for the party's problems to emerge in public spats, culminating in the formation of the Liberal Movement. The Liberal Movement was a progressive wing of the party that subsequently split from the LCL in 1973. Following the split, the LCL under Eastick changed its name to the "Liberal Party" to bring it into line with the Federal party of the same name

Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

. The LCL ended its existence in acrimony and in opposition, but having spent 34 of its 40 years in power.