Elaine Elizabeth Darling (''née'' Melloy; 6 June 1936 – 30 August 2019) was an Australian politician. The

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

member for Lilley from 1980 to 1993, she was the first woman from Queensland to be elected to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

Early life

Born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, Darling attended the

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

before becoming a teacher, eventually rising to be an assistant to the director of the Brisbane Kindergarten Training College.

Politics

In 1980, Darling was elected to the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. ...

as the Labor Party member for Lilley, defeating the sitting

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

MP Kevin Cairns. She was the fifth woman elected to the House of Representatives, and the second female Labor member of that house (the first was

Joan Child Joan Child, (3 August 192123 February 2013) was an Australian politician. She was the first woman to be Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives. Up until the election of Anna Burke on 9 October 2012 , she was the only female Speaker ...

). She held Lilley until her retirement in 1993. From 2000 to 2004, she was a council member of the

City of Caloundra The City of Caloundra was a local government area about north of Brisbane in the Sunshine Coast region of South East Queensland, Australia. The shire covered an area of ; it existed as a local government entity from 1912 until 2008, when it a ...

Family political connections

Darling's father, Jack Melloy, was a long serving member of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

and member of the

Legislative Assembly of Queensland The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembly ...

. Her daughter,

Vicky Darling Vicky Elizabeth Darling (born 29 November 1966) is an Australian Labor politician elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly in September 2006 as the member for Sandgate. Darling was preselected by the Labor Party in 2006 She replaced con ...

, was a member of the

from 2006 to 2012.

References

1936 births 2019 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Lilley Members of the Australian House of Representatives Women members of the Australian House of Representatives Queensland local councillors Women local councillors in Australia 20th-century Australian women politicians Australian MPs 1980–1983 Australian MPs 1983–1984 Australian MPs 1984–1987 Australian MPs 1987–1990 Australian MPs 1990–1993 {{Australia-Labor-representative-stub