William Zeal

Sir William Austin Zeal was an Australian railway engineer and politician, Senator for Victoria in the Parliament of Australia.
Zeal was born at Westbury, Wiltshire, England, the son of Thomas Zeal, a wine merchant, and Ann, nee Greenland.
In 1864, he was elected to Victorian Legislative Assembly as one of the three members for the seat of Castlemaine.
During his campaign for election, Zeal strongly criticised the ability of the Victorian Railways engineer-in-chief, Thomas Higinbotham. In 1865, a select [committee (parliamentary system)|select committee] of the Victorian Parliament was set up to investigate Higinbotham's claim that Zeal had exaggerated the extent of his experience, and his implication that Zeal had acted corruptly when dealing with private railway construction contractors Cornish and Bruce, whom Zeal left the government service to work for. The committee exonerated Zeal.
Zeal resigned his seat in December 1865. Drought conditions caused him to resume his practice as an engineer in 1869, including the design of the Moama-Deniliquin railway.
At the first federal election in 1901, Zeal was elected to the Australian Senate as a Protectionist Party representative for Victoria. In 1906, then in his seventy-sixth year, he declined to stand due to age concerns.
Zeal was a director of several leading Melbourne financial companies and retained his interest in them until his death, following an operation, in 1912. Created KCMG in 1895, Zeal never married.