Ballarat East (initially spelt Ballaarat East ) was an

electoral district An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

. Prior to its abolition, it was a 3,323 km² part-urban and part-rural electorate covering areas to the east of the regional centre of

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...

. It included the Ballarat suburbs of

Ballarat East Ballarat East is a suburb of Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. From 1857 until 1921 the suburb had its own council (see below). The suburb covers a large area east of the city centre. It is the oldest urban area in Ballarat and was the site of ma ...

, Bakery Hill,

Golden Point The golden point, a sudden death overtime system, is used to resolve drawn matches in a number of sports. The term is borrowed from soccer's now-defunct golden goal. Rugby league Australia The golden point is used to determine a winner (where a ...

Eureka Eureka often refers to: * Eureka (word), a famous exclamation attributed to Archimedes * Eureka effect, the sudden, unexpected realization of the solution to a problem Eureka or Ureka may also refer to: History * Eureka Rebellion, an 1854 g ...

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

, Mount Pleasant, Mount Clear, Mount Helen and Warrenheip, and the rural towns of Ballan,

Buninyong Buninyong is a town 11 km from Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. The town is on the Midland Highway, south of Ballarat on the road to Geelong. Buninyong was proclaimed a town on 27 June 1851 on the same day as Winchelsea, Portarlington, ...

Bungaree Bungaree, or Boongaree ( – 24 November 1830), was an Indigenous Australian man from the Broken Bay region north of Sydney, who was known as an explorer, entertainer, and Aboriginal community leader.Barani (2013)Significant Aboriginal People ...

Creswick Creswick is a town in west-central Victoria, Australia, Victoria, Australia, 18 kilometres north of Ballarat, Victoria, Ballarat and 122 kilometres northwest of Melbourne, in the Shire of Hepburn. It is 430 metres above sea level. At the ...

, Daylesford, Dunnstown,

Hepburn Springs Hepburn Springs is a resort town located in the middle of the largest concentration of mineral springs in Australia, situated in Victoria, 48 km northeast of Ballarat. In the , Hepburn had a population of 631, and Hepburn Springs had a po ...

Kyneton Kyneton ( ) is a town in the Macedon Ranges region of central Victoria, Australia. The Calder Freeway bypasses Kyneton to the north and east. The town has three main streets: Mollison Street, Piper Street and High Street. Piper Street has ...

Lal Lal Lal Lal is a town in Victoria (Australia), Australia. The town is located in the Shire of Moorabool and on the Geelong–Ballarat railway line, Geelong-Ballarat railway line, west of the state capital, Melbourne. At the , Lal Lal and the surroun ...

, Malmsbury, Meredith and Steiglitz. The electorate had a population of 54,127 as of the 2006 census, with 40,578 enrolled electors at the 2010 state election. Ballarat East was one of the earliest districts of the Legislative Assembly, having been created for the second Assembly election in 1859. It was initially a two-member seat, and as with the rest of the Assembly, was largely non-partisan until 1889, when it became a one-member electorate and began to be held by more partisan figures. It was held by successive early liberal parties until they merged into the

Nationalist Party of Australia The Nationalist Party, also known as the National Party, was an Australian political party. It was formed in February 1917 from a merger between the Commonwealth Liberal Party, Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the latter formed by ...

in the late 1910s, but fell to the Labor Party in 1924, one term before being abolished in 1927. It was recreated as a marginal seat in 1992, when it was won by Liberal

Barry Traynor Barry Edward Traynor (born 9 December 1946) is an Australian former politician and police officer. Early life He was born in Ararat and attended Ararat High School. Career He began working as a bank teller in 1965. From 1966 to 1992, he ...

, but was regained for Labor by

Geoff Howard Geoffrey Kemp Howard (born 8 November 1955) is an Australian politician. He was a Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, representing Ballarat East from 1999 to 2014, and Buninyong from 2014 to 2018. Life and work Howard ...

when the party won office at the 1999 election. Howard was re-elected at the 2002 election, 2006 election and 2010 election. Ballarat East was abolished in 2014 after a redistribution of Victoria's electoral boundaries, with much of its territory going to the new district of

Members for Ballarat East

:McAdam went on to represent the new Electoral district of Ballarat from 1927.

Election results

References

District profile from the Victorian Electoral Commission

District map from the Victorian Electoral Commission (PDF)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballarat East Ballarat Former electoral districts of Victoria (state) 1859 establishments in Australia 1927 disestablishments in Australia 1992 establishments in Australia 2014 disestablishments in Australia