[3] The property was subjected to several years of drought and locusts in the early 1890s, and the Frazers also experienced financial difficulties caused by the banking crisis of 1893.

[4] He joined the Locomotive Drivers', Firemen's and Cleaners' Union, and after starting in the engine sheds progressed rapidly through the ranks, becoming a fireman after only a few months.

Kirwan's popularity may have contributed to the smaller number of candidates for ALP preselection, as he was widely expected to win re-election.

In the lead-up to the federal election scheduled for 16 December, he began his campaign in the coastal hamlet of Hopetoun, subsequently travelling by ship to Esperance and then riding north to Norseman by bicycle, a five-day journey.

His official policy speech was made in Kalgoorlie on 7 November,[10] and included support for White Australia, protectionism, compulsory arbitration, old-age pensions, and direct taxation of the wealthy.

[11] Kirwan's campaign suffered from a lack of organisation, which contrasted with the pre-existing ALP and union branches that lent their support to Frazer.

At the 1906 election he was opposed by William Burton, the mayor of Esperance, on behalf of John Forrest's newly formed Western Australian Party.

This had been established as an attempt to harness regionalist and secessionist sentiment to provide a unified organisation behind anti-Labor candidates in Western Australia.

[16] In a redistribution prior to the 1913 election, population decline on the Eastern Goldfields led to the Coolgardie electorate being abolished and split between Kalgoorlie and the new seat of Dampier.

The incumbent ALP member for Coolgardie, Hugh Mahon, was defeated in Dampier, but Frazer retained the enlarged Kalgoorlie constituency unopposed.

In 1911, he acted as Treasurer for several months while Fisher attended the 1911 Imperial Conference and coronation of George V.[17] In October 1911 he was appointed Postmaster-General.

Andrew Fisher, George Pearce, Josiah Thomas, Joseph Cook, John Forrest, and Agar Wynne served as pall-bearers.