The Division of Barrier was an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

. The division was created in 1900 and was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. It was named for the Barrier Range near the city of Broken Hill in western New South Wales. In 1901 it included Broken Hill, Wilcannia

Wilcannia, New South Wales

Wilcannia is a small town located within the Central Darling Shire in north western New South Wales, Australia. This was the third largest inland port in the country during the great river boat era of the mid-19th century. At the 2006 census, Wilcannia had a population of 596.- Geography...

, White Cliffs

White Cliffs, New South Wales

White Cliffs is a small town in outback New South Wales in Australia, in Central Darling Shire. White Cliffs is around 255 km northeast of Broken Hill, 93 km north of Wilcannia. At the 2006 census, White Cliffs had a population of 119....

 and Tibooburra

Tibooburra, New South Wales

Tibooburra has an arid, desert climate with temperatures soaring above 40°Celsius in summer, often reaching as high as 47°C . Temperatures are milder in winter, averaging around 20°C in the daytime. These extreme temperatures make Tibooburra the hottest town in New South Wales, as reported on...

 and the surrounding pastoral areas. In 1906 it gained Menindee

Menindee, New South Wales

Menindee is a small town in the far west of New South Wales, Australia, in Central Darling Shire, on the banks of the Darling River, with a sign-posted population of 980.-History:...

, Wentworth

Wentworth, New South Wales

Wentworth is a small border town in the far south west of the state of New South Wales, Australia. It lies at the confluence of Australia's two most important rivers, the Darling and the Murray, the latter forming the border with the state of Victoria to the south. The border with the state of...

 from Riverina

Division of Riverina

The Division of Riverina is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It is located in south-west rural New South Wales, generally following the Murrumbidgee River valley. It includes the cities of Wagga Wagga and Griffith as well as the towns of Junee, West Wyalong, Tumut,...

 and in 1913 it gained Balranald

Balranald, New South Wales

Balranald is a town and local government area in the Riverina district of New South Wales, Australia. At the 2006 census the population was 1,216....

 and Deniliquin from Riverina. It was abolished in 1922 with Broken Hill, Wentworth and Balranald being transferred to Darling

Division of Darling

The Division of Darling was an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was created in 1900 and was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. From 1901 until 1922 it was based on Bourke, Cobar, Nyngan, Coonamble and Gilgandra. From 1906 it also...

 and Deniliquin transferred to Riverina. It was a very safe seat for the Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

, although both its members left the ALP at the end their terms: Josiah Thomas

Josiah Thomas

Josiah Thomas was an Cornish Australian miner and politician.Thomas was born in Camborne, Cornwall, UK and went to Mexico as a child with his father and later worked in mines in Cornwall. He travelled to Australia in the mid-1880s and worked at the Barrier Range, near Broken Hill...

 to join the Nationalists

Nationalist Party of Australia

The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...

, and Michael Considine

Michael Considine

Michael Patrick Considine was an Irish-born Australian politician and unionist. He represented the seat of Barrier in the House of Representatives from 1917 to 1922. A controversial figure, Considine was pressured to resign from the Australian Labor Party...

 (a radical socialist) to sit as an independent.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	Josiah Thomas Josiah Thomas Josiah Thomas was an Cornish Australian miner and politician.Thomas was born in Camborne, Cornwall, UK and went to Mexico as a child with his father and later worked in mines in Cornwall. He travelled to Australia in the mid-1880s and worked at the Barrier Range, near Broken Hill...	Labor Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...	1901–1916
		Nationalist Nationalist Party of Australia The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...	1916–1917
	Michael Considine Michael Considine Michael Patrick Considine was an Irish-born Australian politician and unionist. He represented the seat of Barrier in the House of Representatives from 1917 to 1922. A controversial figure, Considine was pressured to resign from the Australian Labor Party...	Labor Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...	1917 Australian federal election, 1917 Federal elections were held in Australia on 5 May 1917. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election... –1919
		Independent Independent (politician) In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...	1919 Australian federal election, 1919 Federal elections were held in Australia on 13 December 1919. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Nationalist Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes defeated the opposition Australian... –1920
		Industrial Socialist Labor Industrial Socialist Labor Party The Industrial Socialist Labor Party was a short lived socialist political party in Australia in the late 1910s and early 1920s. It was founded by radical socialist members of the industrial wing of the Australian Labor Party , at a time when the ALP's socialist ideology was a matter of intra-party...	1920–1922