Flinders is a single-member
electoral district
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 polity ...
for the
South Australian House of Assembly. It is named after explorer
Matthew Flinders
Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to u ...
, who was responsible for charting most of the state's coastline. It is a 58,901 km² coastal rural electorate encompassing the
Eyre Peninsula and the coast along the
Nullarbor Plain, based in and around the city of
Port Lincoln and contains the District Councils of
Ceduna,
Cleve,
Elliston,
Lower Eyre Peninsula,
Streaky Bay
Streaky the Supercat is a fictional superhero cat that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. He first appeared in ''Action Comics'' #261 (February 1960) and was created by Jerry Siegel and Jim Mooney.
He is Supergirl (Kara Zor-El), Su ...
and
Wudinna; as well as the localities of
Fowlers Bay,
Nullarbor and
Yalata in the
Pastoral Unincorporated Area. The seat was expanded in 2002 to include a western strip of land all the way to the
Western Australia border.
Flinders is the only one of the original 17 electorates to be
contested at every election.
Created as a single-member electorate in 1857, it was a dual-member electorate 1862–1875, 1884–1902 and 1915–1938, and a three-member electorate 1875–1884 and 1902–1915.
[
A single-member electorate since 1938, it was held by Edward Craigie of the Single Tax League from 1938 to 1941. It has been in the hands of a conservative party–the Liberals (and their predecessors, the Liberal and Country League) or the Nationals–ever since. For most of that time, it has been safely conservative even by the standards of rural South Australia, although Labor came close to winning it with a 46.5 percent two-party vote at the 1962 election. Members have typically held the seat for 10 to 20 years.
The LCL/Liberal hold on the seat was broken in 1973 when ]Peter Blacker
Peter Douglas Blacker (born 20 October 1941) is a former Australian politician who represented the seat of Flinders in the South Australian House of Assembly for the Nationals SA
The National Party of Australia (S.A.) Inc. is a political part ...
claimed the seat for the Nationals, then known as the Country Party. He held it until 1993, when Kangaroo Island was briefly redistributed to Flinders, allowing Liberal Liz Penfold to take the seat on a large swing of over 14 percent. Penfold actually won enough votes on the first count to win the seat outright. Blacker sought a rematch in 1997, after Kangaroo Island was removed. However, without the advantages of incumbency, Blacker not only lost, but suffered a further swing of three percent. The seat has reverted to form, and has been a comfortably safe Liberal seat ever since.
Flinders was also the name of an electoral district of the unicameral South Australian Legislative Council from 1851 until its abolition in 1857.[
]
Members for Flinders
Election results
Notes
References
ECSA profile for Flinders: 2018
ABC profile for Flinders: 2018
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Flinders
Electoral districts of South Australia
Eyre Peninsula
1857 establishments in Australia