Engineer and businessman

William Zeal was born in England and trained as a surveyor and engineer before emigrating to Melbourne in 1852. He went briefly to the Castlemaine goldfields before he found work as a railway engineer in 1855. Zeal worked on railway construction for approximately ten years. In late 1864 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly for Castlemaine and retained the seat for just one year. Between 1866 and 1870 he partnered William Mitchell (q.v.), a future president of the Legislative Council, in pastoral runs in the Riverina and in 1871 Zeal was again elected to the Legislative Assembly for Castlemaine, this time holding the seat until 1874. He was also a Prahran city councillor and a chairman of many companies including director of the National Bank 1883-1912. Zeal designed the Moama-Deniliquin railway that was completed in 1876. In 1882 Zeal returned to parliament, this time elected to the Legislative Council in a by-election for North Western province. He remained a member of the Legislative Council until 1901, serving as postmaster-general in 1892 and president from 1892 until 1901.  Zeal was a delegate to the Federal Convention and on his resignation from the Legislative Council was elected to the Senate in the first Commonwealth parliament. He retired from political life in 1906, and died six years later in Toorak.