1 Edmund Barton (1849-1920) PRIME MINISTER: 1901-03 PARTY: PROTECTIONIST Barton became the nation's first prime minister on   January 1, 1901. A key architect of the Constitution, he was admired for his intellect and calm demeanour, as well as being known for his sense of humour and love of food and fine wine. He resigned in 1903 to become one of the three founding judges of Australia's High Court.
2 Alfred Deakin (1856-1919) PRIME MINISTER: 1903-04, 1905-08, 1909-10 PARTY: PROTECTIONIST Deakin was our second prime minister and served in the office three times. Born in Collingwood, he attended Melbourne Grammar and Melbourne University, going on to become a barrister. A protectionist, he believed in tariffs on foreign goods to allow Australian industries to grow and provide employment.
Considered one of Australia's finest speakers, he was known as "affable Alfred" for his polite and courteous manner. 
3 John Christian Watson (1867-1941) PRIME MINISTER: 1904 PARTY: LABOR Known throughout his life as Chris Watson, he was born in Chile but grew up in New Zealand before moving to Sydney. Watson was the first Labor prime minister of Australia - and the first national Labor leader in the world - as well as a founder of the NSW Labor Party in 1891. Although only PM for four months, his influence was still felt after he resigned as Labor leader in 1907.
4 George Reid (1845-1918) PRIME MINISTER: 1904-05 PARTY: FREE TRADE Reid was an unshakeable supporter of free trade, public education and public libraries. He had been premier of New South Wales in 1894 and leader of the Opposition for six of the first seven years of the Australian Parliament. He resigned from Parliament in 1909 and became Australia's first high commissioner to London in   January 1910
5 Andrew Fisher (1862-1928) PRIME MINISTER: 1908-09, 1910-13, 1914-15 PARTY: LABOR Three-time prime minister, Fisher emigrated to Queensland from Scotland in 1885. As PM, he established the Royal Australian Navy and the Commonwealth Bank, transferred the Northern Territory of South Australia to the Commonwealth, founded our national capital, Canberra, instigated the construction of the trans-Australian railway line linking Perth to the rest of Australia, and introduced maternity allowances, acknowledging greater political equality for women.
6 Joseph Cook (1860-1947) PRIME MINISTER: 1913-14 PARTY: COMMONWEALTH LIBERAL Cook worked in the coal mines of Silverdale, Staffordshire, during his early years before emigrating to Lithgow, NSW, during the late 1880s. Aged 31, he was elected to the NSW Parliament as a Labor member in 1891. Later as a Free Trade party member, he played a key role in the coalition of anti-Labor parties.
Cook won the 1913 election with a majority of one.
7 William 'Billy' Hughes (1862-1952) PRIME MINISTER: 1915-23 PARTY: LABOR, NATIONAL LABOR, NATIONALIST Billy Hughes, or the "Little Digger", spent 51 years in Federal Parliament, representing four different parties, three of which expelled him. Hughes became PM after the resignation of Andrew Fisher.
A respected wartime leader, Billy tried and failed to introduce overseas conscription of Australian men to fight in World War I, creating one of the biggest splits in public opinion in our history. He was expelled by the Labor Party, but formed a new party and continued as PM.
8 Stanley Bruce (1882-1967) PRIME MINISTER: 1923-29 PARTY: NATIONALIST A decorated war hero, Bruce became Australia's eighth PM. Educated at Melbourne Grammar and Cambridge University, he trained as a lawyer. Bruce was lucky enough to be PM at a time of relative prosperity.
His policies of getting labour and capital for the UK and his prim and proper manner gave him the reputation of being a proper English gent. However, increasing conflict with the unions and bitter strikes led to defeat in the general election on   October 12, 1929.
9 James Scullin (1876-1952) PRIME MINISTER: 1929-32 PARTY: LABOR Within a week of Scullin taking power, the Wall Street crash brought about a worldwide economic depression in the early 1930s, resulting in bank failures, collapse of investment, mounting unemployment, falling commodity prices and slackening of trade. Scullin, who never held a majority in the Senate, found it hard to pass legislation. He also appointed the first Australian-born governor-general against the wishes of King George V, who felt that a member of the UK nobility should be selected instead.
10 Joseph Lyons (1876-1939) PRIME MINISTER: 1932-39 PARTY: UNITED AUSTRALIA Lyons was Tasmanian Labor premier from 1923 to 1928. He entered Federal Parliament for only two years before becoming prime minister with the conservative United Australia Party. His policies during the Depression were of cautious debt reduction. A good campaigner, he won two further elections in 1934 and 1937, before becoming the first PM to die in office, suffering a heart attack in Sydney on   April 7, 1939.
11 Earle Page (1880-1961) PRIME MINISTER: 1939 PARTY: COUNTRY Page was one of three prime ministers to hold the position for a very short time; for him it was from   April 7-26, 1939, acting as caretaker PM after the death of Joseph Lyons. But Page, a co-founder of the Country Party, only lasted in the hot seat for three weeks before being ousted by Robert Menzies.
12 Robert Menzies (1894-1978) PRIME MINISTER: 1939-41, 1949-66 PARTY: UNITED AUSTRALIA, LIBERAL "British to his bootstraps", Menzies was an ardent supporter of the British monarchy. Serving as prime minister on two separate occasions, he holds the record as the longest-serving leader (more than 18 years). He never had the full support of his colleagues in his first term and was replaced by Arthur Fadden. In opposition, Menzies was instrumental in forming the modern Liberal Party. His second term, often called the "Menzies era", established 23 unbroken years of conservative rule.
13 Arthur Fadden (1894-1973) PRIME MINISTER: 1941 PARTY: COUNTRY Fadden was PM from   August 29 to   October 7, 1941, after Menzies resigned in favour of him. He was defeated in a vote on the floor of Parliament, after which John Curtin became PM. In later years, Fadden was a loyal deputy prime minister and treasurer in Menzies' Liberal-Country Party Coalition government.
Known as a likeable character, he enjoyed a long career before retiring in 1958.
14 John Curtin (1885-1945) PRIME MINISTER: 1941-45 PARTY: LABOR Widely considered one of our greatest PMs, Curtin led the nation through World War II, standing up to British policy by calling Australian troops back from the Middle East to defend New Guinea at a time when an invasion of Australia seemed likely. He won the 1943 election convincingly but died in office on   July 5, 1945, just six weeks before the end of the war in the Pacific.
15 Francis Forde (1890-1983) PRIME MINISTER: 1945 PARTY: LABOR Our second caretaker prime minister was Queenslander Frank Forde. His time in office - only eight days - was even shorter than Earle Page's. Forde was John Curtin's deputy and, when Curtin died, Forde took over as prime minister until a new leader of the Labor Party could be appointed. That happened just one week later when Ben Chifley was chosen as PM.
16 Ben Chifley (1885-1951) PRIME MINISTER: 1945-49 PARTY: LABOR Chifley had been a train driver in his home town of Bathurst, New South Wales, before entering Parliament. After the war, he set about rebuilding the economy, introducing national projects such as the Snowy Mountains' hydro-electric scheme and the assisted immigration program.
Chifley lost office at the 1949 federal election to Robert Menzies
17 Harold Holt (1908-1967) PRIME MINISTER: 1966-67 PARTY: LIBERAL He was regarded as a hard-working minister but Holt is best remembered for his unusual death. As prime minister, he disappeared while swimming at Cheviot Beach near Portsea, Victoria. After an extensive search failed to find him, the governor-general terminated Holt's commission. To this day, the mystery of Holt's disappearance has never been solved.
18 John McEwen (1900-1980) PRIME MINISTER: 1967-68 PARTY: COUNTRY Our third "caretaker" prime minister, McEwen took over when Holt disappeared, only to be replaced after 23 days by the Liberal Party's new choice, John Gorton.
McEwen was a strong supporter of the high tariff policy established in the 1950s to protect Australian industry. He played a key role supporting Gorton in becoming Liberal leader and PM.
19 John Gorton (1911-2002) PRIME MINISTER: 1968-71 PARTY: LIBERAL Gorton was an individualist and a passionate Australian nationalist.
He supported the Australian film and television industry and helped establish the Australian Industry Development Corporation.
He lost office in a vote of no confidence by his colleagues in the Liberal Cabinet. In a vote that was tied 33 to 33, Gorton voted against himself.
20 William 'Billy' McMahon (1908-88) PRIME MINISTER: 1971-72 PARTY: LIBERAL William "Billy" McMahon was 63 when he finally became prime minister in 1971. He is remembered mainly as the leader who lost the election that brought to an end 23 years of domination by Liberal-Country Party rule. At the time, he had been in office for just 21 months. McMahon retired from Parliament in 1982 and died in 1988, at 80 years of age.
21 Gough Whitlam (1916-2014) PRIME MINISTER: 1972-75 PARTY: LABOR Whitlam became prime minister on   December 5, 1972, with the slogan "It's Time". His Labor government, the first after more than two decades, set a blistering pace of reform. He ended conscription, established new Commonwealth agencies like Aboriginal Affairs, and introduced Medibank. Economic woes and political mistakes resulted in the Opposition refusing to pass his Government's Budget bills in the Senate and, in 1975, he became the only prime minister to be removed from office by the governor-general.
22 Malcolm Fraser (1930-2015) PRIME MINISTER: 1975-83 PARTY: LIBERAL After Whitlam was dismissed in controversial circumstances in 1975, Fraser won the next election by a landslide. He was prime minister for 71/2 years, continuing many of the reform policies from the previous government in areas of human rights and in judicial matters.
Fraser was also a prominent figure in international affairs and, after leaving office with the loss of the 1983 election, continued to play a role as an advocate for refugees.
23 Robert 'Bob' Hawke (1929-) PRIME MINISTER: 1983-91 PARTY: LABOR Hawke was the longest-serving Labor prime minister, winning four elections in a row. A former trade union leader, Hawke believed in government by consensus and managed to establish agreement between business and the unions. In   December 1991, however, he became the first Labor PM to be removed by his own party while still in office when successfully challenged by Paul Keating.
24 Paul Keating (1944-) PRIME MINISTER: 1991-96 PARTY: LABOR As treasurer and prime minister, Keating transformed Australia's financial system and economy. His initiatives as PM included the passage of indigenous land rights legislation, and encouraging the process of reconciliation between Aboriginal and other Australians. An ardent republican, he is remembered as one of the great parliamentary performers, always coming out with a funny quip or blistering rebuttal.
25 John Howard (1939-) PRIME MINISTER: 1996-2007 PARTY: LIBERAL Howard became Australia's second longest-serving prime minister after his hero Robert Menzies.
He was in Parliament for 22 years before winning the job. During his term in office, he achieved nationwide gun control legislation and significant reforms in industrial relations and taxation.
After 11 years in office, Howard became only the second PM to lose his seat in the House of Representatives while still serving, the first being Stanley Bruce in 1929.
26 Kevin Rudd (1957-) PRIME MINISTER: 2007-10, 2013 PARTY: LABOR Rudd's government was the first to have a woman as deputy leader.
He will be remembered for issuing a parliamentary apology for the effect of past government policies on indigenous people. Rudd served as PM for 21/2 years, before being deposed by Julia Gillard in 2010. However, he remained in Parliament and was reinstated as PM just over two months before the 2013 election.
27 Julia Gillard (1961-) PRIME MINISTER: 2010-13 PARTY: LABOR Gillard served as deputy prime minister to Kevin Rudd from 2007, before being elected by the party to the top spot on   June 24, 2010, becoming Australia's first woman PM. The former lawyer secured the support of independents and Greens to form a minority government after the 2010 election. On   June 26, 2013, Gillard was herself defeated in a leadership ballot by Rudd. She retired from politics.
28 Tony Abbott (1957-) PRIME MINISTER: 2013-15 PARTY: LIBERAL Abbott served as the leader of the Opposition since   December 1, 2009, before becoming prime minister on   September 18, 2013.
Abbott courted controversy with his views on gay marriage and asylum seekers, before being beaten in a Liberal Party ballot by Malcolm Turnbull on   September 14, 2015.
29 Malcolm Turnbull (1954-) PRIME MINISTER: 2015 PARTY: LIBERAL Turnbull was the former leader of the Australian Republican Movement.
He had previously been Opposition leader, but was ousted in 2009 after failing to convince the Liberal Party of the merits of a carbon emission trading scheme.
Source: primeministers.naa.gov.au, nma.gov.au/primeministers Artwork: Ray Hirst