Early Life
Malcolm Fraser was born in Toorak to a family with a history of involvement in politics and the pastoral/grazing industry. His grandfather, Simon Fraser, emigrated from Nova Scotia in 1853, becoming a successful pastoralist and speculator, as well as a member of the Victorian Parliament, the Federation Conventions of 1897–98 and the Australian Senate. Malcolm Fraser's father, John Neville Fraser, was a pastoralist at Deniliquin in the Riverina region of New South Wales and later at a property called "Nareen station", in Nareen, near Hamilton in the Western District of Victoria. Malcolm Fraser's mother, Una Woolf, was of Jewish descent on her own father's side.
He grew up on the family's pastoral properties and was educated at Glamorgan (now part of Geelong Grammar School) and Melbourne Grammar School, before completing a degree in philosophy, politics and economics ("Modern Greats") at Magdalen College, Oxford in 1952, where he became friendly with future Canadian Prime Minister John Turner.
Fraser contested the seat of Wannon, in Victoria's Western District, in 1954 for the Liberal Party, losing to Labor incumbent Donald McLeod by 17 votes. However, a redistribution made Wannon notionally Liberal, and McLeod retired before the election held a year later. Fraser won the seat with a majority of more than 5,000 on a swing of 8.5 per cent, and continued to represent Wannon until his retirement in 1983.
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