MacDonnell was an

electoral division An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

. It was created in 1974, and derived its name from the nearby

MacDonnell Ranges The MacDonnell Ranges, or Tjoritja in Arrernte, is a mountain range located in southern Northern Territory. MacDonnell Ranges is also the name given to an interim Australian bioregion broadly encompassing the mountain range, with an area of .< ...

. MacDonnell was an almost entirely rural electorate, covering 333,398.61 km², and taking in the resort town of

Yulara Yulara is a town in the southern region of the Northern Territory, Australia. It lies as an unincorporated enclave within MacDonnell Region. At the , Yulara had a permanent population of 1,099, in an area of . It is by road from World Heritage ...

, and the remote communities of

Hermannsburg Hermannsburg is a village and a former municipality in the Celle district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2015 it is part of the municipality Südheide. It has been a state-recognised resort town since 1971. It is situated on the river ...

, Kintore,

Papunya Papunya (Pintupi-Luritja: ''Warumpi'') is a small Indigenous Australian community roughly northwest of Alice Springs (Mparntwe) in the Northern Territory, Australia. It is known as an important centre for Contemporary Indigenous Australian art, ...

and

Docker River Kaltukatjara , also known as Docker River, is a remote Indigenous Australian community in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is southwest of Alice Springs, west of the Stuart Highway, near the Western Australia and Northern Territory bord ...

. There were 4,842 people enrolled within the electorate as of 2011. MacDonnell was generally a safe seat for the Labor Party, due to its large indigenous population, but there have been three exceptions: from 1974 to 1977 (when there were no ALP members in the Assembly); from 1997 to 2005, when several factors helped deliver the seat to the

Country Liberal Party The Country Liberal Party of the Northern Territory (CLP) is a centre-right political party in Australia's Northern Territory. In local politics it operates in a two-party system with the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It also contests federal ...

candidate, who then managed to use his incumbency to his advantage and thus retain the seat at the following election. It was easily regained by the ALP at the 2005 election, amidst a territory-wide landslide result and a particularly strong candidate in former

ATSIC The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) (1990–2005) was the Australian Government body through which Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders were formally involved in the processes of government affecting ...

Central Zone Commissioner

Alison Anderson Alison Nampitjinpa Anderson (born 28 January 1958) is an Australian politician. She was member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly between 2005 and 2016, representing the electorate of Namatijra (known as MacDonnell until 2012). Cu ...

, ultimately sweeping Elferink away with an electoral swing of more than 30 per cent, however in 2009, Anderson resigned from the ALP, and joined the CLP in 2011. In a redistribution conducted prior to the 2012 Northern Territory election, MacDonnell was abolished and was renamed Namatjira, after the artist

Albert Namatjira Albert Namatjira (born Elea Namatjira; 28 July 1902 – 8 August 1959) was an Arrernte painter from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia, widely considered one of the greatest and most influential Australian artists. As a pioneer of cont ...

Members for MacDonnell

Election results

References