The Liberal Country Party (LCP) was a splinter group of the Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

n branch of the Australian Country Party, formed after federal MP John McEwen

John McEwen

Sir John "Black Jack" McEwen, GCMG, CH , was an Australian politician and the 18th Prime Minister of Australia...

 was expelled from the state branch, the United Country Party

United Country Party (Australia)

The United Country Party was the name given to the "loyalist" faction of the Victorian branch of the Australian Country Party following a split in 1937 resulting from the expulsion of federal MP John McEwen for supporting the federal Coalition government...

, for accepting a ministry in the Lyons

Joseph Lyons

Joseph Aloysius Lyons, CH was an Australian politician. He was Labor Premier of Tasmania from 1923 to 1928 and a Minister in the James Scullin government from 1929 until his resignation from the Labor Party in March 1931...

-Page

Earle Page

Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page, GCMG, CH was the 11th Prime Minister of Australia, and is to date the second-longest serving federal parliamentarian in Australian history, with 41 years, 361 days in Parliament.-Early life:...

 Coalition

Coalition (Australia)

The Coalition in Australian politics refers to a group of centre-right parties that has existed in the form of a coalition agreement since 1922...

 government in 1937. Following a tumultuous party conference in 1938, another federal MP, Thomas Paterson

Thomas Paterson

Thomas Paterson was an Australian farmer and politician.Paterson was born in Aston, near Birmingham, England and educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and Ayr Grammar School. He became a shoe salesman in 1897 and later a branch manager, but resigned in 1908 to study farming...

, led over a hundred McEwen supporters to form the LCP, a faction of the party loyal to the federal party. The breach had been resolved by 1943.