The Molonglo electorate was one of the three electorates for the

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...

17-member

Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory (known in short as the ACT Legislative Assembly) is the unicameral legislature of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It sits in the Legislative Assembly Building on Civic Sq ...

between 1995 and 2016. It had seven seats, and was the largest of the three electorates in terms of population.

History

Molonglo was created in 1995, when the three-electorate, Hare-Clark electoral system was first introduced for the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. ...

(ACT). Prior to 1995, a multi-member single constituency existed for the whole of the ACT. The name "Molonglo" is derived from an Aboriginal word meaning "like the sound of thunder". It is the name of the river that flows through the central electorate, which was dammed to form Lake Burley Griffin, one of the focal points of Canberra and of the central electorate.

Location

The Molonglo electorate consisted of the town centres of

North Canberra North Canberra, also known as the Inner North, is a district of Canberra, the capital city of Australia, comprising 14 suburbs. At the , it had 26,699 dwellings housing 61,188 people of the 453,324 people in the Australian Capital Territory. Ma ...

South Canberra South Canberra, or the Inner South, is a central district of Canberra, the capital city of Australia. South Canberra is located to the south of Canberra's City Centre, Australian Capital Territory, city centre and is on the south bank of Lake B ...

Weston Creek The District of Weston Creek is one of the original eighteen districts of the Australian Capital Territory used in land administration. The district is subdivided into divisions (suburbs), sections and blocks. The district of Weston Creek lies ...

, and

Woden Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, v ...

(except for the suburbs of Chifley,

Pearce Pearce may refer to: Places *Pearce, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb *Division of Pearce, an electoral division in Western Australia *Pearce, Arizona, United States, an unincorporated community *RAAF Base Pearce, the main Royal Australian Ai ...

and Torrens), and

Gungahlin The District of Gungahlin () is one of the original eighteen districts of the Australian Capital Territory used in land administration. The Gungahlin Region is one of fastest growing regions within Australia. The district is subdivided into di ...

(except for the suburb of Nicholls). It also includes the parts of the ACT to the north and east of Canberra. Its western boundary was the

Murrumbidgee River The Murrumbidgee River () is a major tributary of the Murray River within the Murray–Darling basin and the second longest river in Australia. It flows through the Australian state of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, desce ...

. Molonglo was abolished in 2016, with its constituents transferred between each of three new electorates: Kurrajong, and parts of Murrumbidgee and Yerrabi.

Members

:¹

Rosemary Follett Rosemary Follett (born 27 March 1948) is a former Australian politician who was the inaugural Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, serving in 1989 and again between 1991 and 1995. She was the first woman to become head of gove ...

(Labor) resigned on 12 December 1996.

Simon Corbell Simon Corbell (born 21 November 1970) is a former Australian politician and Deputy Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory. He was also Attorney-General, Minister for Health, Minister for the Environment and Minister for the Capital ...

(Labor) was elected as her replacement on a countback and was sworn in on 18 February 1997. :²

Terry Connolly Terence (Terry) Connolly (14 February 1958 – 25 September 2007) was an Australian politician and judge. Early years The son of an Irish bricklayer, Connolly was born in Adelaide and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts (both ...

(Labor) resigned on 19 February 1996.

Marion Reilly Marion Reilly is an Australian politician and was a member of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly representing the multi-member single electorate of Molonglo electorate, Molonglo for the Australian Labor Party (Australian Capita ...

(Labor) was elected as his replacement on a countback and was sworn in on 26 March 1996. :³

Kate Carnell Anne Katherine Carnell (née Knowlman; born 30 May 1955) is an Australian businesswoman and former Liberal Party politician, who served as the third Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) from 1995 to 2000. Early life and p ...

(Liberal) resigned on 17 October 2000.

Jacqui Burke Jacqui Burke (born 22 May 1953) is an Australian politician and was a member of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly representing the electorate of Molonglo for the Liberal Party. Legislative career She was sworn into the ACT ...

(Liberal) was elected as her replacement on a countback and sworn in on 13 February 2001. :⁴

Gary Humphries Gary John Joseph Humphries (born 6 July 1958) is a Deputy President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. He was a member of the Australian Senate representing the Australian Capital Territory for the Liberal Party of Australia from 2003 to 2 ...

(Liberal) resigned on 25 November 2002 to take up the position in the

Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives (Australia), House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter ...

that had been vacated by Margaret Reid.

(Liberal) was elected as his replacement on a countback and sworn in on 18 February 2003. :⁵ Helen Cross resigned from the Liberal Party on 23 September 2003 and remained in the Assembly as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

. :⁶

Ted Quinlan Edward Andrew John Quinlan AM (born 7 August 1942) is a former Australian politician. He was a Labor Party member of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly from 1998 to 2006, representing the district of Molonglo. Quinlan wa ...

(Labor) resigned on 21 March 2006.

Andrew Barr Andrew James Barr (born 29 April 1973) is an Australian politician who has been serving as the 7th Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory since 2014. He has been an Australian Labor Party member in the ACT Legislative Assembly sin ...

(Labor) was elected as his replacement on a countback on 3 April 2006. :⁷

Richard Mulcahy Richard James Mulcahy (10 May 1886 – 16 December 1971) was an Irish Fine Gael politician and army general who served as Minister for Education from 1948 to 1951 and 1954 to 1957, Minister for the Gaeltacht from June 1956 to October 1956, L ...

was expelled from the Liberal Party Room and subsequently resigned from the Liberal Party on 10 December 2007. Mulcahy indicated he would continue to sit as an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

. :⁸

Katy Gallagher Katherine Ruth Gallagher (born 18 March 1970) is an Australian politician who has been serving as the Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Minister for the Public Service and Vice-President of the Executive Council in the Albanese Gover ...

resigned from the ACT Legislative Assembly on 23 December 2014 to take up a position in the Australian Senate.

Meegan Fitzharris Meegan Fitzharris (born 1972) is a former Australian politician, who was a member of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly for the Yerrabi electorate from October 2016 to July 2019, and before that, member for the electorate of ...

was elected as her replacement on a countback on 15 January 2015.

External links

Australian Capital Territory Electoral Commission

References

{{ACT electorates Former electorates of the Australian Capital Territory Constituencies disestablished in 2016

History

Location

Members

See also

External links

References