Electoral district of The Hills

The Hills was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales from 1962 to 2007. It was a 51.08 km2 urban electorate in Sydney's north-west, taking in the suburbs of Carlingford, Castle Hill, Cherrybrook, Glenhaven, Kellyville, Pennant Hills and West Pennant Hills. There were 44,961 electors enrolled in the district at the 1999 state election.

The Hills electorate was first contested in 1962. It was created from the northern part of Blacktown, a southern part of Hornsby and the northern part of Eastwood,[1] in the Liberals' traditional heartland of northern Sydney, and as such was a comfortably safe Liberal seat, tending to have long-serving members throughout its history, only having seen four members in more than forty years. Max Ruddock held the seat from 1962 until his death in 1976, and was replaced by local mayor Fred Caterson, who won more than 70% of the vote in the subsequent by-election. Caterson suffered a large swing in the "Wranslide" of 1978, but even then managed to win an outright majority on the first count. It was one of only two times that the Liberals were seriously threatened in this seat. In 1962, Ruddock was nearly defeated by an independent Liberal when the seat was first contested.[2][3][4]

The seat reverted to form, and Caterson held it comfortably until 1990, when he retired and was replaced by used car dealer Tony Packard. In contrast to his predecessors, Packard only lasted three years, and resigned amidst scandal in 1993.[5][6] Although there was some speculation that the Liberal Party would lose the ensuing 1993 by-election, Liberal candidate Michael Richardson won easily and was handily returned in the next three elections.

The district was abolished from the 2007 state election as a result of the 2004 electoral redistribution. Richardson followed most of the electorate to the new electorate of Castle Hill, with the remaining territory being split between Hawkesbury, Hornsby and Epping.

Members
MemberPartyPeriod
  Max Ruddock [7] Liberal 1962–1976
  Fred Caterson [8] Liberal 1976–1990
  Tony Packard [9] Liberal 1990–1993
  Michael Richardson [10] Liberal 1993–2007

Election results
Main article: Electoral results for the district of The Hills
This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2003 New South Wales state election (Legislative Assembly) § The Hills[edit]
2003 New South Wales state election: The Hills [11]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Michael Richardson 25,574 50.4 -0.7
Labor Anthony Ellard 14,488 28.6 +3.3
Greens Jocelyn Howden 3,289 6.5 +3.8
Independent Rob Stanton 2,368 4.7 +4.7
Christian Democrats Ken Gregory 2,293 4.5 -0.8
Unity Robert McLeod 1,441 2.8 -1.2
AAFI Albert Dowman 650 1.3 +0.3
Democrats Kamran Keshavarz Talebi 619 1.2 -5.7
Total formal votes 50,722 98.0 +0.2
Informal votes 1,041 2.0 -0.2
Turnout 51,763 92.2
Two-party-preferred result
Liberal Michael Richardson 27,536 61.6 -3.1
Labor Anthony Ellard 17,174 38.4 +3.1
Liberal hold Swing-3.1

References
  1. "1961 Redistribution". Atlas of New South Wales. NSW Land & Property Information. Archived from the original on 23 June 2015.
  2. Green, Antony. "Elections for the District of The Hills". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  3. "Part 5B alphabetical list of all electorates and Members since 1856" (PDF). NSW Parliamentary Record. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  4. "Former Members". Members of Parliament. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  5. Green, Anthony. "Castle Hill - NSW Election Votes 2011". ABC News. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
  6. "Mr (Tony) Anthony Charles Packard (1943– )". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
  7. "Mr Maxwell Stanley Ruddock (1914–1976)". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  8. "Mr (Fred) Frederick Douglas Claude Caterson". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  9. "Mr (Tony) Anthony Charles Packard (1943– )". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  10. "Mr Michael John Richardson (1949– )". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  11. Green, Antony. "2003 The Hills". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
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