Electoral district of Flinders

Flinders is a single-member electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. It is named after explorer Matthew Flinders, who was responsible for charting most of the state's coastline. It is a 58,901 km² coastal rural electorate encompassing the Eyre Peninsula and the coast along the Nullarbor Plain, based in and around the city of Port Lincoln and contains the District Councils of Ceduna, Cleve, Elliston, Lower Eyre Peninsula, Streaky Bay and Wudinna; as well as the localities of Fowlers Bay, Nullarbor and Yalata in the Pastoral Unincorporated Area. The seat was expanded in 2002 to include a western strip of land all the way to the Western Australia border.

This article is about the electorate in South Australia. For the former Queensland electorate, see Electoral district of Flinders (Queensland). For the Federal electorate in Victoria, see Division of Flinders.

Flinders
South Australia—House of Assembly
Electoral district of Flinders (green) in South Australia
StateSouth Australia
Created1857
MPPeter Treloar
PartyLiberal Party of Australia (SA)
NamesakeMatthew Flinders
Electors22,756 (2018)
Area58,901 km2 (22,741.8 sq mi)
DemographicRural
Electorates around Flinders:
W. A. Giles Giles
W. A. Flinders Narungga
Great Australian Bight Great Australian Bight Mawson
Footnotes
Electoral District map[1]

Flinders is the only one of the original 17 electorates to be contested at every election.[2] Created as a single-member electorate in 1857, it was a dual-member electorate 1862–1875, 1884–1902 and 1915–1938, and a three-member electorate 1875–1884 and 1902–1915.[2]

A single-member electorate since 1938, it was held by Edward Craigie of the Single Tax League from 1938 to 1941. It has been in the hands of a conservative party–the Liberals (and their predecessors, the Liberal and Country League) or the Nationals–ever since. For most of that time, it has been safely conservative even by the standards of rural South Australia, although Labor came close to winning it with a 46.5 percent two-party vote at the 1962 election. Members have typically held the seat for 10 to 20 years.

The LCL/Liberal hold on the seat was broken in 1973 when Peter Blacker claimed the seat for the Nationals, then known as the Country Party. He held it until 1993, when Kangaroo Island was briefly redistributed to Flinders, allowing Liberal Liz Penfold to take the seat on a large swing of over 14 percent. Penfold actually won enough votes on the first count to win the seat outright. Blacker sought a rematch in 1997, after Kangaroo Island was removed. However, without the advantages of incumbency, Blacker not only lost, but suffered a further swing of three percent. The seat has reverted to form, and has been a comfortably safe Liberal seat ever since.

Flinders was also the name of an electoral district of the unicameral South Australian Legislative Council from 1851 until its abolition in 1857.[2]

Members for Flinders
Member Party Term
  Marshall MacDermott 1857–1859
  W. J. Browne 1860–1862
Member Party Term Member Party Term
  Alfred Watts 1862–1866   Charles Lindsay 1862–1865
    John Williams 1865–1868
  Augustine Stow 1866–1868
  Alfred Watts 1868–1875   W. R. Mortlock 1868–1870
  Hampton Gleeson 1870–1871
  W. R. Mortlock 1871–1875
Member Party Term Member Party Term Member Party Term
  P. B. Coglin 1875–1881   John Williams 1875–1878   Ebenezer Cooke 1875–1882
    W. R. Mortlock 1878–1884
  Andrew Tennant 1881–1884
    P. B. Coglin 1882–1884
Member Party Term Member Party Term
  Andrew Tennant 1884–1887   John Moule 1884–1896
  William Horn 1887–1893
  Alexander Poynton Labor 1893–1901
    W. T. Mortlock 1896–1899
    David McKenzie 1899–1902
  W. T. Mortlock 1901–1902
Member Party Term Member Party Term Member Party Term
  Richard Foster National League 1902–1904   David McKenzie 1902–1905   Thomas Burgoyne National League 1902–1904
  Farmers and Producers 1904–1906   Farmers and Producers 1904–1906
  A. H. Inkster 1905–1906
  John Travers Liberal and Democratic 1906–1910   Liberal and Democratic 1906–1907   Liberal and Democratic 1906–1910
  E. H. Warren Farmers and Producers 1907–1910
  James O'Loghlin Labor 1910–1912   James Moseley Liberal Union 1910–1915   Liberal Union 1910–1915
  John Travers Liberal Union 1912–1915
Member Party Term Member Party Term
  John Travers Liberal Union 1915–1918   James Moseley Liberal Union 1915–1923
  John Chapman Country 1918–1924
  Liberal Federation 1923–1932
  John O'Connor Labor 1924–1927
  Edward Coles Country Party 1927–1928
  Liberal Federation 1928–1930
  Edward Craigie Single Tax 1930–1938
    Liberal and Country 1932–1933
    Arthur Christian Liberal and Country 1933–1938
Member Party Term
  Edward Craigie Single Tax 1938–1941
  Rex Pearson Liberal and Country 1941–1951
  Glen Pearson Liberal and Country 1951–1970
  John Carnie Liberal and Country 1970–1973
  Peter Blacker Nationals SA 1973–1993
  Liz Penfold Liberal 1993–2010
  Peter Treloar Liberal 2010–present

Election results
See also: Electoral results for the district of Flinders
2018 South Australian state election: Flinders[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Peter Treloar 13,565 68.2 −3.5
Labor Julie Watson 3,598 18.1 +2.5
Greens Ian Dudley 1,429 7.2 +0.9
Conservatives Tony Parker 1,300 6.5 +0.2
Total formal votes 19,892 97.0 −0.6
Informal votes 606 3.0 +0.6
Turnout 20,498 90.1 +0.3
Two-party-preferred result
Liberal Peter Treloar 15,176 76.3 −2.6
Labor Julie Watson 4,716 23.7 +2.6
Liberal hold Swing−2.6

Notes
  1. Electoral District of Flinders (Map). Electoral Commission of South Australia. 2018. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  2. "Statistical Record of the Legislature 1836 to 2009" (PDF). Parliament of South Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 March 2019. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  3. State Election Results – District Results for Flinders, ECSA.

References
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