Since late-May 2024, federal Redistribution Committee reports have proposed changes to electoral divisions in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia. If confirmed, the redistributions would create a new electoral division (Bullwinkel, in WA), which would be the 219th to be established in the history of the parliament. However, Higgins (Vic) and North Sydney (NSW) would be abolished after 75 and 123 years respectively. This Flagpost provides an overview of such longest and shortest-lived electoral divisions, and the stories behind their beginnings and ends.

Longstanding ‘Federation electorates’

There were 65 electoral divisions at Federation, though they were created in stages. Victoria’s enabling legislation received assent first (on 8 October 1900), followed by Western Australia (5 December 1900), New South Wales (11 December 1900) and Queensland (28 December 1900). Because neither South Australia and Tasmania enacted the required legislation by 1 January 1901 they became single electoral divisions, in accordance with the Constitution (section 29).

By 1969 almost a third of federation electoral divisions had been abolished, predominantly in NSW and Victoria. Yet despite this, a parliamentary inquiry into the Naming of Electoral Divisions at the time reported that ‘the names existing at Federation have been generally adhered to’ (p. 1).

The 1986 Joint Select Committee on Electoral Reform sought to provide a stronger framework, including recommending the guidance on federation divisions which remains current today. This has largely maintained the number of longstanding federation divisions, with only 4 subsequently ceasing. These were Corinella (Vic; abolished 1994), Gwydir (NSW; abolished 2006), Kalgoorlie (WA; abolished 2008) and Melbourne Ports (Vic; abolished 2018). Hunter (NSW) would have been abolished in 2016, having had its boundaries abolished; however, it was retained through the renaming of Charlton.

Of the original 65 federation electoral divisions, 35 (54%) remain. They include:

• 15 from NSW (Cowper, Eden-Monaro, Hume, Hunter, Macquarie, New England, Newcastle, North Sydney, Parkes, Parramatta, Richmond, Riverina, Robertson, Wentworth and Werriwa)
• 9 from Victoria (Bendigo, Corangamite, Corio, Flinders, Gippsland, Indi, Kooyong, Melbourne and Wannon)
• 8 from Queensland (Brisbane, Capricornia, Herbert, Kennedy, Maranoa, Moreton, Oxley and Wide Bay)
• 3 from WA (Fremantle, Perth and Swan).

The shortest-lived examples

Although ‘federation electorates’, the South Australia and Tasmania single divisions were also the shortest-lived, lasting for barely 2 years and 9 months. On 2 October 1903, South Australia became 7 federal divisions (of which 5 remain), while Tasmania became 5 divisions (of which only 2 remain).

Of those divisions established after Federation, the ACT’s electoral division Namadgi
(1994–97) was the shortest-lived at just over 3 years and 2 months. Named after the National Park comprising nearly half the ACT’s area, Namadgi covered much of the ACT’s southern expanse. However, its existence was brief, predominantly due to future enrolments falling short of minimum-required projections to maintain the ACT’s 3 electoral divisions. The ACT eventually regained a third electoral division in 2018, when Bean was established with broadly similar boundaries as Namadgi.

The Victorian electoral division of Streeton is another short-lived example, existing for less than 5 years. Established in 1984 through the House of Representatives’ expansion from 125 to 148 seats, its boundaries lay east of Melbourne around the Yarra Ranges National Park. However, the 1989 augmented Electoral Commission’s report noted that ‘rapid growth’ in metropolitan Melbourne’s south-east required Streeton to be split into the neighbouring divisions of La Trobe, Casey and Deakin.

Same place, new name

In addition to redistributions creating new or abolishing existing electoral boundaries, the process can also instigate name changes to existing divisions. There have been 7 examples of this over the past decade:

• In the 2018 Victorian redistribution, Batman (established 1906) was renamed Cooper, McMillan (established 1949) was renamed Monash, Melbourne Ports (established 1900) was renamed Macnamara, and Murray (established 1949) was renamed Nicholls.
• In the 2018 SA redistribution, Wakefield (established 1903) was renamed Spence.
• In the 2016 NSW redistribution, Throsby (established 1984) was renamed Whitlam.
• In the 2016 ACT redistribution, Fraser (established 1974) was renamed Fenner.

The division of Fraser returned to the Parliament in 2018, when it was created through the Victorian redistribution and named in honour of the former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. The ACT’s Fraser division was named to commemorate former MP James Fraser.

Given the regularity of redistributions (at least every 7 years—or sooner in the case of serious malapportionment), the coming and going of electoral divisions will remain an enduring feature of Australian politics. Recent Parliamentary Library publications offering further insights include:

• Kate Laing and Anna Hough, Electorate names: who is honoured?, (31 May 2023)
• Christopher Giuliano, Electoral redistributions expected during the 47th Parliament, (9 January 2023)
• Damon Muller, The process of federal redistributions: a quick guide, (25 August 2022).