Electoral district of Geraldton

Last updated

Geraldton
Western Australia—Legislative Assembly
WA Election 2021 - Geraldton.png
Electoral district of Geraldton
Interactive map of district boundaries
State Western Australia
Dates current1890–present
MP Kirrilee Warr
Party National
Namesake Geraldton
Electors 32,988 (2025)
Area26,417 km2 (10,199.7 sq mi)
DemographicProvincial
Coordinates 28°46′S114°40′E / 28.76°S 114.66°E / -28.76; 114.66
Electorates around Geraldton:
Indian Ocean Moore Moore
Indian Ocean Geraldton Moore
Indian Ocean Moore Moore

Geraldton is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia.

Contents

Geraldton was one of the original 30 seats contested at the 1890 colonial election. The district is based on the eponymous regional city.

Labor held throughout most of the twentieth century, Geraldton has since become a seat that has changed hands regularly in the last two decades.

Geography

The district has always been based on the regional coastal city of Geraldton. Electoral reform ahead of the 2008 state election necessitated an increase in the district's enrolment and thus an expansion of its boundaries, as it did for all non-metropolitan districts. This means the district now includes all outlying suburbs of the city, as well as adjacent rural areas. The district's current boundaries are identical with the former City of Geraldton-Greenough, itself a newly formed local government area.

History

Geraldton changed hands frequently between different members and parties during the early history of the seat in the late 19th and early 20th century. After 1914 however, the seat was held by the Labor Party for all but three of the next 77 years. The seat's longest serving and most famous member was John Willcock, member from 1917 to 1947 and Premier of Western Australia from 1936 to 1945.

A fairly safe to safe Labor seat for much of the 20th century, it became somewhat less safe for Labor in the 1980s. The resignation of Labor member Jeff Carr following his sacking as minister in 1991 triggered a by-election that was won by the Liberal Party's Bob Bloffwitch, the seat's first non-Labor member in more than four decades. Bloffwitch held the seat at the subsequent 1993 state election, when the Liberal Party won government. The seat changed hands with the next change of government at the 2001 state election when Labor candidate Shane Hill was elected. Hill held the seat for two terms before Liberal Ian Blayney won it with a change of government at the 2008 state election. In fact the redistribution prior to that election had turned the seat into a notionally Liberal seat.

In 2013, Blayney seemingly consolidated his hold on the seat with Labor falling to third place behind the National Party. Blayney's margin was enough for him to narrowly overcome one of the biggest swings amid Labor's decisive victory at the subsequent election in 2017, with Labor's Lara Dalton paring back his margin from a seemingly insurmountable 22.8 percent to an extremely marginal 1.3 percent. Blayney's victory marked only the second time since World War I (Bloffwitch's 1991 by-election win being the first) that Labor had been in government without holding Geraldton. Blayney defected to the Nationals in 2019, but was heavily defeated by Dalton in 2021. Dalton actually won enough votes on the first count to take the seat outright.

Members for Geraldton

MemberPartyTerm
  Edward Vivien Harvey Keane Non-aligned1890–1891
  George Simpson Opposition1891–1899
  Richard Robson Independent 1899–1900
  Robert Hutchinson Opposition1900–1904
  Henry Carson Ministerial1904–1906
  Thomas Brown Labor 1906–1908
 Henry CarsonMinisterial1908–1911
  Bronte Dooley Labor1911–1913
  Samuel Elliott Liberal 1913–1914
  Edward Heitmann Labor1914–1917
  National Labor 1917
 Samuel ElliottLiberal1917
  John Willcock Labor1917–1947
  Edmund Hall Country 1947–1950
  Bill Sewell Labor1950–1974
  Jeff Carr Labor1974–1991
  Bob Bloffwitch Liberal 1991–2001
  Shane Hill Labor2001–2008
  Ian Blayney Liberal2008–2019
 Independent2019
  National [1] 2019–2021
  Lara Dalton Labor2021–2025
  Kirrilee Warr National 2025–present

Election results

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2025 Western Australian state election (Legislative Assembly) § Geraldton.[ edit ]
2025 Western Australian state election: Geraldton [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
National Kirrilee Warr 6,73428.8+2.2
Labor Lara Dalton 5,67524.3−28.1
Independent Shane van Styn4,82520.7+20.7
Liberal Tim Milnes3,68915.8+3.1
Greens Madeline Doncon8233.5+0.9
Christians Eugenie Harris5162.2+2.2
Legalise Cannabis David Van Beek4942.1+2.1
Independent Aaron Horsman4011.7+1.7
Shooters, Fishers, Farmers Jack Ostle2010.9−1.2
Total formal votes23,35896.1−0.4
Informal votes9503.9+0.4
Turnout 24,30873.7−5.5
Two-candidate-preferred result
National Kirrilee Warr 14,65363.6+63.6
Labor Lara Dalton 8,38036.4−22.9
National gain from Labor  
Results are not final. Last updated on 9 March 2025 at 4:30 PM AWST

References

  1. ↑ "Nationals accept Geraldton MP Ian Blayney into fold after Liberal Party defection - ABC News".
  2. ↑ 2025 State General Election – Geraldton District Results, WAEC. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
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