Electoral district of Central Kimberley-Pilbara
Encyclopedia
The Electoral district of Pilbara is a Legislative Assembly
electorate
in the state
of Western Australia
. Pilbara is named for the region of Western Australia
in which it is located. It is one of the oldest electorates in Western Australia, with its first member having been elected to the Second Parliament of the Legislative Assembly at the 1894 elections.
-held seat, it has been held by the Liberals
and their predecessors for significant terms. Its second member, Walter Kingsmill
, was a prominent member of Leake
's opposition, serving as a Minister in the Leake, James and Rason governments between 1901 and 1906. The seat was first won for Labor at a 1906 by-election, which was won by Henry Underwood
against Ministerial opponent John Marquis Hopkins
. He became part of the National Labor
movement led by John Scaddan
in early 1917, and later served in a Nationalist
ministry under Henry Lefroy
as a minister without portfolio. He was defeated by a Labor rival, Alfred Lamond in the 1924 election, but on Lamond's retirement at the 1933 election
, the seat became the only seat to switch from Labor to Nationalist in the State in what proved to be a disastrous election for the Nationalists which relegated them to third place behind the Country Party
. Labor recovered the seat in 1939, who held it continuously until the 1974 election
, when Charles Court
's Liberals
defeated Labor premier John Tonkin
's one-seat majority. Labor recovered the seat when they won government again in 1983, with the seat's first female member Pam Buchanan, who later became a minister in the Lawrence
government. In 1989, she shifted to the new seat of Ashburton
, and Larry Graham
won Pilbara for the Labor party. He resigned from the Labor party in 2000, and served as an Independent until his retirement at the 2005 election
, and Labor's Tom Stephens
, who had resigned his Legislative Council
seat and unsuccessfully contested Kalgoorlie
at the 2004 election, won the seat, which for one term was known as Central Kimberley-Pilbara due to a redistribution. The name reverted to Pilbara at the 2008 redistribution.
, Paraburdoo
and Pannawonica
; the Town of Port Hedland
including Port Hedland
; the Shire of East Pilbara including Newman
and Marble Bar, Western Australia
and extending to the eastern boundary of the State; and the western and northern sections of the Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku, which is relatively unpopulated (especially as it excludes the town of Warburton
) was added in order to balance the land areas of Pilbara and Kalgoorlie
. The area's economy is centred on mining, particularly iron ore, and a significant proportion of the voting population are Aboriginal
.
The 2007 redistribution, which took effect at the 2008 election
, resulted in the seat losing areas it had gained in the previous distribution including Fitzroy Crossing
and Halls Creek
in the Kimberley region, but gaining the large town of Newman
from the abolished Murchison-Eyre
.
Western Australian Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Perth....
electorate
Electoral districts of Western Australia
The Western Australian Legislative Assembly is elected from 59 single-member electoral districts. These districts are often referred to as electorates or seats....
in the state
States and territories of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a union of six states and various territories. The Australian mainland is made up of five states and three territories, with the sixth state of Tasmania being made up of islands. In addition there are six island territories, known as external territories, and a...
of Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
. Pilbara is named for the region of Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
in which it is located. It is one of the oldest electorates in Western Australia, with its first member having been elected to the Second Parliament of the Legislative Assembly at the 1894 elections.
History
Pilbara was created at the 1893 redistribution in the Constitution Act Amendment Act 1893, through which three new electorates were created in mining and pastoral areas. Its first member was elected at the 1894 election, and while normally a LaborAustralian 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...
-held seat, it has been held by the Liberals
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
and their predecessors for significant terms. Its second member, Walter Kingsmill
Walter Kingsmill
Sir Walter Kingsmill was an Australian politician.Born in Glenelg, South Australia, he was educated at St Peter's College in Adelaide and at the University of Adelaide before becoming a geologist. Moving to Western Australia in 1888, he became a mine manager...
, was a prominent member of Leake
George Leake
George Leake CMG QC was Premier of Western Australia from 27 May 1901 to 21 November 1901, and again from 23 December 1901 until his death on 24 June 1902.-Early life:...
's opposition, serving as a Minister in the Leake, James and Rason governments between 1901 and 1906. The seat was first won for Labor at a 1906 by-election, which was won by Henry Underwood
Henry Underwood
Henry Underwood was an architect, initially working in Cheltenham, who later moved to Bath.His most important building in Bath was the Swedenborgian New Jerusalem Church in the Greek revival style...
against Ministerial opponent John Marquis Hopkins
John Marquis Hopkins
John Marquis Hopkins was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, representing Boulder from 1901 to 1905 and Beverley from 1908 to 1910. In 1910 he was gaoled for five years for uttering....
. He became part of the National Labor
National Labor Party
The National Labor Party was the name used by the Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes for himself and his followers after he was expelled from the Australian Labor Party in November 1916 over his pro-conscription stance in relation to World War I...
movement led by John Scaddan
John Scaddan
John Scaddan, CMG , popularly known as "Happy Jack", was Premier of Western Australia from 7 October 1911 until 27 July 1916.- Biography :...
in early 1917, and later served in a 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...
ministry under Henry Lefroy
Henry Lefroy
Sir Henry Bruce Lefroy KCMG was the eleventh Premier of Western Australia.-Biography:Lefroy was born in Perth, Western Australia on 24 March 1854. His father was Anthony O'Grady Lefroy, Colonial Treasurer of Western Australia for over 30 years...
as a minister without portfolio. He was defeated by a Labor rival, Alfred Lamond in the 1924 election, but on Lamond's retirement at the 1933 election
Western Australian state election, 1933
Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 8 April 1933 to elect all 50 members to the Legislative Assembly. The one-term Nationalist-Country coalition government, led by Premier Sir James Mitchell, was defeated by the Labor Party, led by Opposition Leader Philip Collier.The election...
, the seat became the only seat to switch from Labor to Nationalist in the State in what proved to be a disastrous election for the Nationalists which relegated them to third place behind the Country Party
National Party of Western Australia
The National Party of Western Australia is a political party in Western Australia. It is affiliated with the National Party of Australia but maintains a separate structure and identity....
. Labor recovered the seat in 1939, who held it continuously until the 1974 election
Western Australian state election, 1974
Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 30 March 1974 to elect all 51 members to the Legislative Assembly and 15 members to the 30-seat Legislative Council...
, when Charles Court
Charles Court
Sir Charles Walter Michael Court, was a Western Australian politician, 21st Premier of Western Australia and member for the seat of Nedlands for the Liberal Party for nearly 30 years.-Early life:...
's Liberals
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
defeated Labor premier John Tonkin
John Tonkin
John Trezise Tonkin AC , popularly known as "Honest John", was the 20th Premier of Western Australia , taking power after the almost 12 year term of Liberal Sir David Brand....
's one-seat majority. Labor recovered the seat when they won government again in 1983, with the seat's first female member Pam Buchanan, who later became a minister in the Lawrence
Carmen Lawrence
Carmen Mary Lawrence is a retired Australian politician; a former Premier of Western Australia and the first woman to become Premier of a State of the Commonwealth of Australia....
government. In 1989, she shifted to the new seat of Ashburton
Electoral district of Ashburton
Ashburton was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia from 1890 to 1901 and again from 1989 to 1996....
, and Larry Graham
Larry Graham
Larry Graham, Jr. is an African American bass guitar player, both with the popular and influential psychedelic soul/funk band Sly & the Family Stone, and as the founder and frontman of Graham Central Station...
won Pilbara for the Labor party. He resigned from the Labor party in 2000, and served as an Independent until his retirement at the 2005 election
Western Australian state election, 2005
Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 26 February 2005 to elect all 57 members to the Legislative Assembly and all 34 members to the Legislative Council...
, and Labor's Tom Stephens
Tom Stephens
Thomas Gregory Stephens is a West Australian parliamentarian. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Parliament of Western Australia since 1982, serving in the Legislative Council from 1982 to 2004, and in the Legislative Assembly since 2005...
, who had resigned his Legislative Council
Western Australian Legislative Council
The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the Legislative Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state...
seat and unsuccessfully contested Kalgoorlie
Division of Kalgoorlie
The Division of Kalgoorlie was an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Western Australia, named after the city of Kalgoorlie. The Division, which was proclaimed in 1900 as one of the original 75 divisions to be contested at the first Federal election, covered most of the land area of...
at the 2004 election, won the seat, which for one term was known as Central Kimberley-Pilbara due to a redistribution. The name reverted to Pilbara at the 2008 redistribution.
Geography
The Pilbara electorate contains the eastern parts of the Shire of Ashburton, including the mining towns of Tom PriceTom Price, Western Australia
Tom Price, situated in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, is an industrial town. The town is located inland, at the edge of the Hamersley Range...
, Paraburdoo
Paraburdoo, Western Australia
Paraburdoo is a town in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The name of the town comes from the Aboriginal word for 'white cockatoo'. It is located 1,536 kilometres north of Perth and 79 kilometres southwest of Tom Price. Paraburdoo was developed in the early 1970s to support Hamersley...
and Pannawonica
Pannawonica, Western Australia
The town of Pannawonica is an iron-ore mining town located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, near the Robe River, about 200 km south-west from Karratha...
; the Town of Port Hedland
Town of Port Hedland
The Town of Port Hedland is a Local Government Area in the Pilbara region of Western Australia for the twin towns of Port Hedland and South Hedland. It has a census population of 11,959 , of which only a few hundred live outside the settlement boundaries...
including Port Hedland
Port Hedland, Western Australia
Port Hedland is the highest tonnage port in Australia and largest town in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, with a population of approximately 14,000 ....
; the Shire of East Pilbara including Newman
Newman, Western Australia
Newman, located about 1186 km north of Perth and 9 km north of the Tropic of Capricorn, is a town in the Pilbara region. It can be reached by the Great Northern Highway...
and Marble Bar, Western Australia
Marble Bar, Western Australia
-North Pole:An ironically named locality nearby is known as North Pole , no doubt for its heat. It is the location of rock formations considered to have evidence that puts the origin of life on earth back to 3,400–3,500 mya, due to stromatolites in particular rock sequences...
and extending to the eastern boundary of the State; and the western and northern sections of the Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku, which is relatively unpopulated (especially as it excludes the town of Warburton
Warburton, Western Australia
Warburton or Warburton Ranges is an Indigenous Australian community in Western Australia, just to the south of the Gibson Desert and located on the Great Central Road and Gunbarrel Highway...
) was added in order to balance the land areas of Pilbara and Kalgoorlie
Electoral district of Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia.The district includes not only the town of Kalgoorlie, but significant parts of the outback in central and eastern Western Australia....
. The area's economy is centred on mining, particularly iron ore, and a significant proportion of the voting population are Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
.
The 2007 redistribution, which took effect at the 2008 election
Western Australian state election, 2008
A general election was held in the state of Western Australia on Saturday 6 September 2008 to elect 59 members to the Legislative Assembly and 36 members to the Legislative Council...
, resulted in the seat losing areas it had gained in the previous distribution including Fitzroy Crossing
Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia
Fitzroy Crossing is a small town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, 400 km east of Broome and 300 km west of Halls Creek. It is approximately 2,524 km from the state capital of Perth....
and Halls Creek
Halls Creek, Western Australia
Halls Creek is a small town situated in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is located between the towns of Fitzroy Crossing and Turkey Creek on the Great Northern Highway...
in the Kimberley region, but gaining the large town of Newman
Newman, Western Australia
Newman, located about 1186 km north of Perth and 9 km north of the Tropic of Capricorn, is a town in the Pilbara region. It can be reached by the Great Northern Highway...
from the abolished Murchison-Eyre
Electoral district of Murchison-Eyre
Murchison-Eyre was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia from 1890 to 1989 and again from 2005 to 2008....
.
Members for Pilbara
| Member | Party | Term | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Henry Keep Henry Keep Henry Frederick Keep was a Member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 1894 to 1897.The son of farmer Adam Corrie Keep, Henry Keep was born in Wollaston, Northamptonshire, England on 27 January 1863, and named, according to his birth certificate, Henry Francis Keep... |
Non-aligned | 1894–1897 | |
| Walter Kingsmill Walter Kingsmill Sir Walter Kingsmill was an Australian politician.Born in Glenelg, South Australia, he was educated at St Peter's College in Adelaide and at the University of Adelaide before becoming a geologist. Moving to Western Australia in 1888, he became a mine manager... |
Oppositionist | 1897–1903 | |
| James Isdell | Independent | 1903–1906 | |
| Henry Underwood Henry Underwood Henry Underwood was an architect, initially working in Cheltenham, who later moved to Bath.His most important building in Bath was the Swedenborgian New Jerusalem Church in the Greek revival style... |
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... |
1906–1917 | |
| 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... |
1917–1924 | ||
| Alfred Lamond | Labor | 1924–1933 | |
| Frank Welsh Frank Welsh (politician) Frank Robert Welsh was an Australian politician who represented the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Pilbara from 1933 until 1939, and one of the three Legislative Council seats for North Province from 1940 until 1954... |
Nationalist | 1933–1939 | |
| Bill Hegney | Labor | 1939–1950 | |
| Aloysius Rodoreda | Labor | 1950–1958 | |
| Arthur Bickerton | Labor | 1958–1974 | |
| Brian Sodeman | Liberal Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office... |
1974–1983 | |
| Pam Buchanan | Labor | 1983–1989 | |
| Larry Graham Larry Graham Larry Graham, Jr. is an African American bass guitar player, both with the popular and influential psychedelic soul/funk band Sly & the Family Stone, and as the founder and frontman of Graham Central Station... |
Labor | 1989–2000 | |
| Ind. Labor | 2000–2005 | ||
| Tom Stephens Tom Stephens Thomas Gregory Stephens is a West Australian parliamentarian. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Parliament of Western Australia since 1982, serving in the Legislative Council from 1982 to 2004, and in the Legislative Assembly since 2005... |
Labor | 2005–present | |
Results
External links
- Electorate Profile (Antony Green, ABC)