Barkly is an

electoral division 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 provid ...

of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

. It was first created in 1974, and is named after the

Barkly Tableland The Barkly Tableland is a region in the Central East of the Northern Territory, extending into Western Queensland. The region was named after Sir Henry Barkly. The epithet "Tableland" is inaccurate, since the region is neither elevated relative ...

area, which occupies much of the electorate. Barkly is a rural electorate, covering 442,868 km² and taking in the towns of

Tennant Creek Tennant Creek () is a town located in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is the Northern Territory#Cities and towns, seventh largest town in the Northern Territory, and is located on the Stuart Highway, just south of the intersection with ...

Borroloola Borroloola () is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located on the McArthur River, about upstream from the Gulf of Carpentaria. Location Borroloola lies on the traditional country of the Yanyuwa people, on the coastal plain ...

, Ali Curung, Warrego, Tara Aboriginal Community and Alpururulam. There were 5,690 people enrolled in the electorate as of August 2020. Barkly was created along with the creation of the Assembly in 1974 as a conservative-leaning marginal seat centred on the town of

. It was won at that election by

Country Liberal Party The Country Liberal Party of the Northern Territory (CLP), commonly known as the Country Liberals, is a centre-right and conservative political party in Australia's Northern Territory. In territory politics, it operates in a two-party system wi ...

candidate Ian Tuxworth, who later became a high-profile Cabinet minister and served as

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

from 1984 to 1986. Tuxworth was comfortably re-elected as a CLP member in 1977, 1980 and 1983, but faced an extremely close race in 1987 after he quit the CLP in order to head the rival conservative NT Nationals party. He won a narrow victory over Labor Party candidate Maggie Hickey, but saw the win overturned by the Court of Disputed Returns upon a legal challenge from Hickey before again winning the resulting by-election. A redistribution ahead of the 1990 election made Barkly a notionally Labor seat, and Tuxworth mounted an ultimately unsuccessful bid for Goyder instead. Hickey was comfortably elected in Tuxworth's absence, and went on to serve as

Opposition Leader The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

from 1996 to 1999, before retiring due to ill health in 2001. Labor candidate Elliot McAdam was comfortably elected at the 2001 election before going on to serve as a minister in the

Martin Martin may refer to: Places Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Europe * Martin, Croatia, a village * Martin, Slovakia, a city * Martín del Río, Aragón, Spain * M ...

and Henderson Labor governments. He retired at the 2008 election, in which Labor's

Gerry McCarthy Gerald Francis McCarthy (born 30 June 1958) is an Australian politician. He was a Australian Labor Party (Northern Territory Branch), Labor member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, holding the seat of Electoral division of Barkly, ...

was elected as his successor. In 2020 CLP Candidate

Steve Edgington Steven Mark Edgington is an Australian politician from the Northern Territory. Edgington moved to Darwin in 1988 to join the police force. In his time in the Territory he has lived and worked in a number of locations including senior police rol ...

won the seat.

Members for Barkly

Election results

References

External links

Division profile from the Northern Territory Electoral Commission
{{coord, 19, 38, 50, S, 134, 11, 25, E, display=title Barkly