Electoral district of Ovens

{{Short description|Former electoral district in Victoria, Australia}}

{{for|the electorate of the old unicameral Legislative Council 1851-56|Electoral district of Ovens (Victorian Legislative Council)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}

{{Infobox Australian electorate

|name = Ovens

|state = vic

|image = Electoral_district_of_Ovens,_Victoria.png

|caption = Location in Victoria, 1856

|created = 1856

|abolished = 1927

|mp =

|mp-party =

|namesake = The Ovens

|area =

|class = Rural

}}

Ovens (or The Ovens) was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly{{cite web |url=https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/about/people-in-parliament/re-member/form/27 |title=Former Members |work=re-member: a database of all Victorian MPs since 1851 |publisher=Parliament of Victoria |access-date=26 August 2022}}

in the Australian state of Victoria from 1856 to 1927. It was based in northern Victoria, bordered by the Ovens River in the south-west and included the town of Beechworth, Victoria.

{{cite web

|url=http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/120040

|title=Electoral district of Ovens

|year=1855

|access-date=14 April 2013

|type=map

}}

The district of Ovens was one of the initial districts of the first Victorian Legislative Assembly, 1856.{{cite book

|title=Constitutional Development of Victoria, 1851-6

|author=Sweetman, Edward

|year=1920

|publisher=Whitcombe & Tombs Limited

|page=[https://archive.org/details/constitutionalde00swee/page/183 183]

|url=https://archive.org/details/constitutionalde00swee

|access-date=5 May 2013

}} It was defined in the Victorian Constitution Act 1855 (taking effect at the 1856 elections) as: {{cquote|Commencing at the Junction of Whorouly Creek with the River Ovens, bounded on the West by a Line bearing North Twenty Miles, thence on the North by a Line bearing East to the Little River, on the East by the Little River to its Source in the dividing Range, thence by the dividing Range and a Line South to a Point on the Ovens River Nine Miles above its Junction with the River Buckland ; on the South by a Line from the last-mentioned Point to the Source of the River Buckland, thence by the dividing Range to the Source of the River Buffalo, and again on the South and West by that River and the Ovens to the commencing Point.

{{cite web

|url=http://foundingdocs.gov.au/resources/transcripts/vic5_doc_1855.pdf

|title=Victoria Constitution Act 1855

|access-date=5 May 2013

}}

}}

Ovens was superseded by Electoral district of Wangaratta and Ovens in 1927.