Electoral district of Bulimba

Bulimba Queensland—Legislative Assembly
Map of the electoral district of Bulimba, 2017
State	Queensland
Dates current	1873–present
MP	Di Farmer
Party	Labor
Namesake	Bulimba
Electors	39,571 (2020)
Area	29 km2 (11.2 sq mi)
Demographic	Inner-metropolitan
Coordinates	27°28′S153°5′E / 27.467°S 153.083°E / -27.467; 153.083 Coordinates: 27°28′S153°5′E / 27.467°S 153.083°E / -27.467; 153.083
Electorates around Bulimba: McConnel Clayfield Clayfield South Brisbane Bulimba Lytton Greenslopes Chatsworth Chatsworth

2008 map of Bulimba

Bulimba is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland.

The electorate covers the inner eastern suburbs of Brisbane. It is bounded on the north and the west by the Brisbane River and, as at the 2009 election, covers the suburbs of Bulimba, Balmoral, Cannon Hill, Hawthorne, Morningside, Norman Park, Murarrie and Seven Hills. The boundaries have changed relatively little since 1923; prior to that, the boundaries extended as far east as Wynnum and as far south-east as Mount Gravatt and Cleveland. ^[1]

History

Bulimba has existed continuously since the 1873 election, originally covering most of the outer south-east of Brisbane.

Since the 1923 redistribution, Bulimba has strongly supported Labor. The Labor Party (ALP) held the seat on all but six terms and, of those, 3 were held by an independent Labor candidate and one by a member of the Queensland Labor Party. As a measure of how strongly pro-Labor the seat has been, it was one of the eleven seats Labor retained in the Coalition landslide of 1974, at which Labor was cut down to a "cricket team" of only 11 members.

In the 1929 election Bulimba returned Queensland's first woman Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly (MLA), Irene Longman of the Country and Progressive National Party, for one term.

Although ALP candidate Robert Gardner was elected in Bulimba in the 1950 election, the close result caused close scrutiny of the votes and revealed that fraudulent votes had been cast in Gardner's favour. The election was ruled void, but Gardner himself was cleared of any involvement in the fraud. ^{[2] [3]} The scandal and the investigations into the fraud continued for many months. Finally, a by-election was held on 14 April 1951 (almost 12 months after the original election) with the ballot boxes under police guard. ^[4] Gardner won the by-election by a narrow margin. ^[5]

Prior to the 1957 election, Gardner and 21 other Labor MLAs under the leadership of Premier Vince Gair left the ALP to form the Queensland Labor Party (QLP). Gardner was defeated by Jack Houston of the regular ALP, who held the seat until 1980 and was the state's Opposition Leader from 1966 until 1974.

In the 2012 election, Liberal National candidate Aaron Dillaway was elected. In the 2015 election, Bulimba was the most marginal seat held by the LNP and was regained by Di Farmer of the ALP.

Members for Bulimba

Member		Party	Term
	William Hemmant		1873–1876
	James Johnston		1876
	George Grimes		1876–1878
	Frederick Swanwick		1878–1882
	John Francis Buckland	Liberal	1882–1892
	James Dickson	Independent	1892–1896
		Ministerial	1896–1901
	Walter Barnes	Ministerial	1901–1903
		Conservative	1903–1909
		Liberal	1909–1915
	Hugh McMinn	Labor	1915–1918
	Walter Barnes	National	1918–1922
		United	1922–1923
	Harry Wright	Labor	1923–1929
	Irene Longman	Country and Progressive National	1929–1932
	William Copley	Labor	1932–1938
	George Marriott	Labor	1938–1941
		Independent Labor	1941–1950
	Bob Gardner	Labor	1950–1957
		Queensland Labor	1957
	Jack Houston	Labor	1957–1980
	Ron McLean	Labor	1980–1992
	Pat Purcell	Labor	1992–2009
	Di Farmer	Labor	2009–2012
	Aaron Dillaway	Liberal National	2012–2015
	Di Farmer	Labor	2015–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Bulimba

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2020 Queensland state election § Bulimba.[ edit ]

2020 Queensland state election: Bulimba ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Di Farmer	16,764	48.23	−0.64
	Liberal National	Anthony Bishop	11,883	34.19	−0.35
	Greens	Rolf Kuelsen	4,665	13.42	+0.30
	One Nation	Doug Conway	785	2.26	+2.26
	Independent	Finn Armstrong-Schmakeit	659	1.90	+1.90
Total formal votes			34,756	98.10	+1.53
Informal votes			673	1.90	−1.53
Turnout			35,429	89.53	+1.70
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Di Farmer	21,336	61.39	+0.61
	Liberal National	Anthony Bishop	13,420	38.61	−0.61
	Labor hold		Swing	+0.61

References

1. "Representatives of Queensland State Electorates 1860-2017" (PDF). Queensland Parliamentary Record 2012-2017: The 55th Parliament. Queensland Parliament. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 April 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
2. "KEEN VOTES WATCH". The Courier-Mail . Brisbane: National Library of Australia. 4 January 1951. p. 3. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
3. "BULIMBA FRAUD". The Courier-Mail . Brisbane: National Library of Australia. 31 January 1951. p. 1. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
4. "Election count continues". The Courier-Mail . Brisbane: National Library of Australia. 16 April 1951. p. 3. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
5. "BULIMBA MAJORITY STANDS TO END". The Courier-Mail . Brisbane: National Library of Australia. 21 April 1951. p. 5. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
6. 2020 State General Election – Bulimba – District Summary, ECQ.

Further reading

• Bulimba Electorate Centenary Committee (1959), History of the Bulimba electorate 1859-1959 : including the districts of Bulimba, Hawthorne, Norman Park, Morningside, Cannon Hill, Murarrie, Tingalpa and Hemmant, Cranbrook Press ; issued by the Bulimba Electorate Centenary Committee

External links

• Electorate profile (Antony Green, ABC)