Kalgoorlie is an
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 poli ...
of the
Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...
.
The district includes not only the town of
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...
, but significant parts of the
outback
The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a ...
in central and eastern Western Australia.
Long a Labor stronghold, the district was lost to the Liberal Party at the
2001 state election. The new Liberal member,
Matt Birney, was re-elected at the
2005 state election but the district has changed hands at every election since then.
History
The district of Kalgoorlie was first created for the
1901 state election and has continued to exist as an electorate ever since. Over its first 100 years it was always represented by the
Labor Party with the exception of two interruptions between 1905 and 1911 and 1921 and 1923. For most of the time after 1923, it was a reasonably safe Labor seat.
However, it became far less safe for Labor during the 1990s amid demographic changes in the city of Kalgoorlie. Labor lost the seat in 2001 when
Liberal candidate
Matt Birney defeated incumbent MP
Megan Anwyl
Megan Irene Anwyl (born 19 January 1962) is a former Australian politician. She was a Labor member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, representing Kalgoorlie from 1996 to 2001.
Anwyl was born in Melbourne, Victoria. She qualified as ...
at the
2001 state election. Oddly, this was also an election that brought Labor into government. Indeed, Anwyl was the only Labor MP to lose her seat at that election. However, as a measure of how the ground had shifted from under Labor, Anwyl only led Birney by eight votes on the first count, and lost when
One Nation preferences flowed overwhelmingly to Birney.
Birney was re-elected at the
2005 state election with a large swing even as the Labor government was convincingly reelected. He retired at the
2008 state election. Upon Birney's retirement, the seat was won by independent candidate and former Labor MLA
John Bowler, the former member for
Murchison-Eyre. Bowler held the seat for one term before retiring at the
2013 state election when the seat was won by Nationals MLC
Wendy Duncan.
Duncan also only held the seat for only one term before retiring ahead of the
2017 state election which allowed
Kyran O'Donnell to gain the seat for the Liberal Party. This marked the second time, after the
2001 state election, that the Liberal Party won the seat at an election as it lost government. O'Donnell held the seat for only one term before being swept out by Labor's
Ali Kent in
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...
amid the massive Labor wave that swept through Western Australia.
Geography
For most of its history, the seat was a relatively compact seat based on its namesake, the town of
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...
. A redistribution ahead of the
2008 state election saw a significant expansion of the seat to include remote areas to the north and north-east of the town. This was made necessary by
one vote, one value electoral reform which meant that, where previously all non-metropolitan districts could have significantly lower enrolment than their metropolitan (i.e.
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
) counterparts, now the only districts permitted to contain low enrolment are those that cover vast geographical areas. So whilst most of its population is based in the town of Kalgoorlie, the district also includes remote communities such as
Eucla,
Laverton,
Leinster
Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of ...
,
Leonora and
Menzies
Menzies is a Scottish surname, with Gaelic forms being Méinnearach and Méinn, and other variant forms being Menigees, Mennes, Mengzes, Menzeys, Mengies, and Minges.
Derivation and history
The name and its Gaelic form are probably derived f ...
.
Members for Kalgoorlie
Election results
References
External links
* ABC Election Profiles
2005
* WAEC District Maps
1996–20052005–20082008–
{{Authority control
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...
City of Kalgoorlie–Boulder