McLean was born in the highlands of Scotland and came to Australia as a child in 1842 with his family. He later said 'were practically frozen out of Scotland' by 'an exceptionally severe winter'. His father, Charles McLean, was a grazier near Tarraville, in the Gippsland region of Victoria. McLean was educated at the local state school, assisted his father on his stations, and for a short period was on the staff of the Gippsland Times. About 1870, he acquired the lease of 'The Lowlands', a sheep station, on the shores of Lake Wellington near Sale and in 1872, formed the firm of A. McLean and Company, Stock and Station Agents, at Maffra. He became a shire councillor at Maffra in 1873, and as president of the shire was active in forming the Municipal Association of Victoria.
Victorian politics
McLean was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Gippsland North in May 1880. A conservative, he was President of the Board of Land and Works and Minister of Agriculture in the James Munro ministry from 1890 to 1891, and Chief Secretary from 1891 to 1892, retaining this position under William Shiels from 1892 to 1893. He became a minister without portfolio in the liberal government of George Turner in 1894, but resigned in April 1898. On 5 December 1899, he moved and carried a vote of no-confidence, becoming Premier and Chief Secretary, but his government lasted less than a year. At the 1900 election the conservatives were defeated and Turner reclaimed the premiership.
Federal politics
McLean was an opponent of Australian federation and was not a member of the conventions which shaped the Australian Constitution. However, reassured to some degree by Deakin's composite stand as an Australian Briton, McLean sent him to London in January 1900 as Victoria's representative in negotiations with the British government. In March 1901, however, he was elected a member of the first Australian House of Representatives for the seat of Gippsland, and sat as a supporter of the Protectionist Party of Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin. McLean belonged to the conservative wing of the party and opposed Deakin's increasingly warm alliance with the Labour Party. In April 1904 Deakin resigned and the Labour leader, Chris Watson, formed a minority government. Watson resigned in August, and the Free Trade leader George Reid formed another minority government, supported by the conservative Protectionists. McLean came into the cabinet as Minister for Trade and Customs, and his position was so strong that the government is often referred to as the Reid-McLean ministry. This composite ministry was, however, not a success. It was constantly being assailed by the Labour Party and the radical Protectionist section of Deakin's followers, such as H. B. Higgins and Isaac Isaacs. It lasted for less than 11 months, and fell when Deakin withdrew his support. This episode caused great bitterness in the Protectionist ranks, and at the 1906 election McLean was opposed in Gippsland by a radical Protectionist, George Wise, who narrowly defeated McLean with Labour support.
Personal life
McLean, who had suffered for many years with a rheumatic affliction and did not feel capable of doing justice to his constituents, retired before the next election. He died at his home at Albert Park in 1911. Sir George Reid said of him that "no public man in Victoria was more widely or more affectionately esteemed". He was twice married, once in 1866 to Margaret Bridget Shinnock of Maffra, and subsequently, to Emily Macarthur, who survived him with five sons and two daughters by the first marriage. His eldest son, William Joseph McLean was a noted pastoralist, and senior partner in the firm of A. McLean and Co., stock and station agents of Maffra, Sale and Bairnsdale, and the Melbourne firm of McLean, McKenzie and Co.
