Electoral district of Kalgoorlie

This article is about the Western Australian state electorate. For the Australian federal electorate, see Division of Kalgoorlie.

Kalgoorlie Western Australia—Legislative Assembly
State or territory:	Western Australia
Dates current:	1901–present
MP:	John Bowler
Party:	Independent
Namesake:	Kalgoorlie
Area:	632,816 km² (244,332 sq mi)
Demographic:	Mining and Pastoral

Kalgoorlie is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia.

The district includes not only the town of Kalgoorlie, but significant parts of the outback in central and eastern Western Australia.

Long a Labor stronghold, the district has more recently become a very competitive seat.

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.

Labor has not held the seat since 2001 when Liberal Party candidate defeated incumbent MP Megan Anwyl 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.

Geography

Always based on the town of Kalgoorlie, the 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 electoral reform which meant that, where previously all non-metropolitan districts could have significantly lower enrolment than their metropolitan (i.e. Perth) 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 Laverton, Leinster, Leonora, Menzies, Sandstone, Warburton and Wiluna.

Members for Kalgoorlie

Member		Party	Term
	William Johnson	Labor	1901–1905
	Norbert Keenan	Ministerial	1905–1911
	Albert Green	Labor	1911–1913
	George McLeod	Labor	1914
	Albert Green	Labor	1914–1921
	John Boyland	Independent Nationalist	1921–1922
	James Cunningham	Labor	1923–1936
	Herbert Styants	Labor	1936–1956
	Tom Evans	Labor	1956–1980
	Edward Evans	Labor	1980–1981
	Ian Taylor	Labor	1981–1996
	Megan Anwyl	Labor	1996–2001
	Matt Birney	Liberal	2001–2008
	John Bowler	Independent	2008–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Kalgoorlie

Western Australian state election, 2008: Kalgoorlie
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	John Bowler	3,466	34.0	+34.0
	Liberal	Nat James	2,540	24.9	-26.0
	WA Nationals	Tony Crook	1,942	19.0	+19.0
	Labor	Mathew Cuomo	1,790	17.6	-19.6
	Greens	Andy Huntley	461	4.5	+0.2
Total formal votes			10,199	94.4	-1.5
Informal votes			605	5.6	+1.5
Turnout			10,804	76.4
Two-candidate preferred result
	Independent	John Bowler	5,462	53.6	+53.6
	WA Nationals	Tony Crook	4,731	46.4	+46.4
	Independent gain from Liberal		Swing	N/A

External links

• ABC Election Profiles: 2005 2008
• WAEC District Maps: 1996–2005 2005–2008 2008–