The Council remained fully nominative until the Australian Colonies Government Act came into effect in Van Diemen's Land on 21 October 1851, when the Council was expanded to 24 members, with 16 elected by the voters and eight nominated by the Governor, who ceased to be a member. The franchise for these elections was extremely limited, with only men over 30 and who owned a certain amount of property eligible to vote. Former convicts, who made up a significant proportion of the colony's population, were not able to vote. The 1851 arrangements were a compromise struck by the Governor between the colonists' demands for representative government and the Colonial Office's wish to control the colony through the Governor. The first Speaker of the new Council was Sir Richard Dry.
