Frank Noel Wilkes AM (16 June 1922 – 20 August 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the Leader of the Labor Opposition in Victoria from 1977 to 1981.

[5] Wilkes was a loyal deputy to Clyde Holding,[4] who led the ALP in opposition from 1967 to 1977 and lost three elections to the Liberal Party, first to Henry Bolte and then to Sir Rupert Hamer.

When Holding resigned after the ALP's landslide defeat in 1976, Wilkes claimed the leadership by right of long and loyal service, rather than any outstanding ability.

Wilkes and Holding told diplomatic officials in 1974 of a "renovation" or "coup" they were staging within the Victorian Young Labor organisation to remove "pro-Arab" supporters.

John Cain Jr., son of the former Premier and a man whom most believed to be of greater ability than Wilkes, had been elected to Parliament in 1976 and by 1979 was among the leading ALP parliamentarians.