Nunawading Province

Nunawading Province Victoria—Legislative Council
State	Victoria
Created	1976
Abolished	1996
Namesake	Nunawading
Demographic	Metropolitan

Nunawading Province was an electorate of the Victorian Legislative Council. ^[1] It was created in 1976, based in the outer eastern Melbourne suburbs including Nunawading. It was finally abolished 29 March 1996. ^[1] Much of its area was replaced by Koonung Province.

In the 1985 election, the result for this province was subject to much controversy when the vote ended with a complete dead heat after preferences. Both the Labor candidate Bob Ives and the Liberal candidate Rosemary Varty received 54,821 votes each. The returning officer, Kathleen Leonard, was required by law to make a casting vote, which she did so by drawing a name from a ballot box. The name drawn was Bob Ives and he was declared elected. ^[2]

This result did not stand, and a by-election was called, in which the Liberal candidate Varty won with a swing to her.

Members for Nunawading Province

Member 1		Party	Year
	Vernon Hauser	Liberal	1976	Member 2		Party
			1979		Peter Block	Liberal
	Laurie McArthur	Labor	1982
			1985		Bob Ives	Labor
			1985		Rosemary Varty	Liberal
	George Cox	Liberal	1988

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Nunawading Province

1988 Victorian state election: Nunawading Province

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	George Cox	56,764	51.1	+5.0
	Labor	Laurie McArthur	54,308	48.9	+3.1
Total formal votes			111,072	96.7	−1.0
Informal votes			3,782	3.3	+1.0
Turnout			114,854	93.4	−0.6
	Liberal gain from Labor		Swing	+1.1

References

1. "Find a Member". State Government of Victoria. Retrieved 17 July 2025.
2. Broadbent, David; Colebatch, Tim; Hawker, Philippa (14 March 1985). "'Raffle' gives Labor Victory". The Age.

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