Electoral district of Wilcannia

Last updated

Wilcannia was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales from 1889 to 1904. The district was named after and included the town of Wilcannia. Prior to 1889 Wilcannia was part of the district of Wentworth. The population in Wentworth had grown significantly since the 1880 redistribution, especially as a result of the growth of mining at Broken Hill. Under the formula for seats, Wentworth was due to return 3 members. Because of the large area covered by the district, in 1889 it was split into 3, Wentworth, Sturt and Wilcannia. [1] Its first member was the son of Charles Dickens. [2] It was abolished in 1904 due to the re-distribution of electorates following the 1903 New South Wales referendum, which required the number of members of the Legislative Assembly to be reduced from 125 to 90. [3] The district was divided between Cobar and the new district of The Darling. [4] [5] The member for Wilcannia was Richard Sleath (Independent Labour) who unsuccessfully contested the 1904 election for The Darling. [6] [7]

Contents

Members for Wilcannia

MemberPartyPeriod
  Edward Dickens Protectionist 1889–1894
  Richard Sleath Labour 1894–1901
  Independent Labour 1901–1904

Election results

1901 New South Wales state election: Wilcannia [8]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Independent Labor Richard Sleath 63747.9-24.1
Labour John Buzacott41431.1
Independent Liberal Thomas Bell28021.0
Total formal votes1,33199.3-0.3
Informal votes100.8+0.3
Turnout 1,34152.5+9.9
Member changed to Independent Labour from Labour  

Related Research Articles

Electoral district of Bourke state electoral district of New South Wales, Australia

Bourke was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales from 1880 to 1904, including the towns of Bourke and Cobar. It elected two members simultaneously between 1882 and 1889 increasing to three members until 1894, with each elector being able to vote for as many candidates as there were vacancies.

Boorowa was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian State of New South Wales from 1880 to 1904, including the town of Boorowa. Its name was spelt "Booroowa" from 1899 to 1901. It was abolished in the 1904 re-distribution of electorates following the 1903 New South Wales referendum, which required the number of members of the Legislative Assembly to be reduced from 125 to 90, and was largely absorbed by Yass, with the balance going to the new district of Burrangong.

Broken Hill was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It has had two incarnations, from 1894 to 1913 and from 1968 to 1999. The district is named after and included the town of Broken Hill, however it has not always included the town of South Broken Hill, previously known as Alma, or the surrounding district.

The Darling was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales from 1904 to 1913, named after the Darling River. It was created in the 1904 re-distribution of electorates following the 1903 New South Wales referendum, which required the number of members of the Legislative Assembly to be reduced from 125 to 90, and consisted of Bourke and parts of The Barwon and Wilcannia. It was abolished in 1913 with most of the district going to Cobar and the balance to Sturt.

Sturt was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales in the Broken Hill area. It was a single member electorate from 1889 to 1920.

Cobar was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales which was named after the town of Cobar. It was first created in 1894 and abolished in 1920. Cobar was recreated in 1930 and abolished in 1968.

Alma was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales from 1894 to 1904, named after Alma, a locality in southern Broken Hill, now known as South Broken Hill.

Darling Harbour was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, in the vicinity of Darling Harbour. It was created in the 1904 re-distribution of electorates following the 1903 New South Wales referendum, which required the number of members of the Legislative Assembly to be reduced from 125 to 90. It consisted of the abolished seats of Sydney-Gipps and Sydney-Lang and parts of the abolished seats of Sydney-King and Sydney-Denison. In 1920, with the introduction of proportional representation, it was absorbed into Balmain.

Young was an electoral district for the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, named after and including the town of Young. It elected two members between 1880 and 1894 and one member from 1894 to 1904, when it was replaced by Burrangong. The sitting member George Burgess (Labour) successfully contested Burrangong. In 1920, with the introduction of proportional representation, Burrangong was absorbed by the three member district of Cootamundra. Proportional representation was abandoned in 1927 and Young was recreated. It was abolished in 1981 and the district was split with Young being absorbed by Burrinjuck while the towns of Cowra and Forbes were absorbed by a re-created Lachlan.

Liverpool Plains was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, created in 1859 and including the Liverpool Plains and the extensive pastoral district around the Gwydir River in the northwest of the state. It was created when the seat of Liverpool Plains and Gwydir was divided into two. It was abolished in 1880, and partly replaced by Gunnedah. It was re-created in the 1904 re-distribution of electorates following the 1903 New South Wales referendum, which required the number of members of the Legislative Assembly to be reduced from 125 to 90. It consisted of parts of the abolished seats of Gunnedah, Quirindi, and Wellington. In 1920, with the introduction of proportional representation it was absorbed into Wammerawa, along with Castlereagh and Mudgee. Liverpool Plains was recreated for the 1927 election and finally abolished in 1962. The district was divided between Barwon and Upper Hunter. The sitting member, Frank O'Keefe (Country), successfully contested Upper Hunter at the 1962 election.

Uralla-Walcha was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, including the towns of Uralla and Walcha. It was originally created in 1894, when multi-member districts were abolished, and the three member district of New England was largely divided between Uralla-Walcha, Armidale and Bingara. The district was abolished in 1904 as a result of the 1903 New South Wales referendum, which reduced the number of members of the Legislative Assembly from 125 to 90, and was divided between Armidale and Bingara.

Molong was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, created in 1880 and named after and including Molong. The district was abolished in 1904 as a result of the 1903 New South Wales referendum, which reduced the number of members of the Legislative Assembly from 125 to 90, and the district was divided between the districts of Ashburnham, Belubula and Orange.

Wentworth was an electoral district for the Legislative Assembly in the far south west of the Australian state of New South Wales and named after and including the town of Wentworth. It established in 1880 and partly replacing Lachlan. From 1885 until 1889 it elected two members. The population in Wentworth had grown significantly since the 1880 redistribution, especially as a result of the growth of mining at Broken Hill, with the electoral roll growing from 1,901 in 1880 to 5,617 in 1887. Under the formula for seats, Wentworth was due to return 3 members, however because of the large area covered by the district, in 1889 it was split into 3, Wentworth, Sturt and Wilcannia. Wentworth retained the eponymous town, along with the towns of Menindie and Pooncaira. Sturt contained the mining boom towns of Broken Hill, Silverton and Milparinka while Wilcannia was the only town in that district.

Paddington was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, originally created in 1859, partly replacing Sydney Hamlets. It included the suburbs of Paddington and Redfern. The rest of Sydney's current Eastern Suburbs, which were then rural, were part of Canterbury. With the creation of the electoral districts of South Sydney and Redfern in 1880, Paddington included the northern part of the eastern suburbs, generally east of what is now known as Anzac Parade and north of Rainbow Street, including all of current Woollahra and Waverley and part of Randwick. It elected one member from 1859 to 1880, two members from 1880 to 1885, three members from 1885 to 1889 and four members from 1889 to 1894. With the abolition of multi-member constituencies in 1894, it was replaced by the single-member electorates of Paddington, Waverley, Woollahra and Randwick. In 1920, with the introduction of proportional representation, it was absorbed into Sydney. Paddington was recreated in 1927. In 1959, it was combined with part of Waverley and renamed Paddington-Waverley, which was itself abolished in 1962 and partly replaced by Bligh.

Pyrmont was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales that was created in the 1904 re-distribution of electorates following the 1903 New South Wales referendum, which required the number of members of the Legislative Assembly to be reduced from 125 to 90. It consisted of the abolished seat of Sydney-Pyrmont and part of the abolished seat of Sydney-Denison and included the Sydney suburb of Pyrmont. It was abolished in 1913 and the district re-distributed to Belmore, Darling Harbour and Phillip.

King was an electoral district in the Australian state of New South Wales. It was created in 1904 as a result of the 1903 New South Wales referendum, which required the number of members of the Legislative Assembly to be reduced from 125 to 90. It largely replaced Sydney-King, losing a part to Darling Harbour. It was expanded to include parts of Sydney-Fitzroy and Sydney-Bligh. It also included Lord Howe Island, Montague Island and South Solitary Island.

The Darling, an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales was created in 1904 and abolished in 1913.

The 1904 New South Wales state election involved 90 electoral districts returning one member each. The election was conducted on the basis of a simple majority or first-past-the-post voting system. There were two significant changes from the 1901 election, the first was that women were given the right to vote, which saw an increase in the number of enrolled voters from 345,500 in 1901, to 689,490 in 1904. The second was that as a result of the 1903 New South Wales referendum, the number of members of the Legislative Assembly was reduced from 125 to 90. The combined effect of the changes meant that the average number of enrolled voters per electorate went from 2,764, to 7,661, an increase of 277%. Leichhardt was the only district that was not substantially changed, while The Macquarie and The Murray districts retained nothing but the name.

Wentworth, an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, was created in 1859 and abolished in 1904.

Wilcannia, an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales was created in 1889 and abolished in 1904.

References

  1. "1880 Redistribution". Atlas of New South Wales. NSW Land & Property Information. Archived from the original on 23 June 2015.
  2. "Mr Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens (1852-1902)". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales . Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  3. "1904 Redistribution". Atlas of New South Wales. NSW Land & Property Information. Archived from the original on 23 June 2015.
  4. Part 5B alphabetical list of all electorates and Members since 1856 (PDF). NSW Parliamentary Record. Parliament of New South Wales . Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  5. Green, Antony. "Elections for the District of Wilcannia". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales . Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  6. "Mr Richard Sleath (1863–1922)". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales . Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  7. Green, Antony. "1904 Darling". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales . Retrieved 7 December 2019.
  8. Green, Antony. "1901 Wilcannia". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales . Retrieved 2 April 2020.