Electoral district of Wallsend

Wallsend is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. Wallsend is a Newcastle suburban electorate, deriving its name from the suburb of the same name, covering 118.57 km² and encompassing at least part of the suburbs of Wallsend, Edgeworth, New Lambton, Jesmond, Shortland and Beresfield. There were 45,069 people enrolled within the electorate as of April 1999.

History

Wallsend was initially settled as a coal mining area and has developed into one of the poorer dormitory areas for the industrial hub of Newcastle. Throughout its history Wallsend has been a safe Labor seat.

It was first created in 1894 with the abolition of multi-member districts from part of the electoral district of Newcastle, but was abolished in 1904 with the reduction of the size of the Legislative Assembly after Federation. It was recreated between 1917 but with the introduction of proportional representation in 1920, it was absorbed into Newcastle. In 1930, it was abolished and partly replaced by Waratah. It was finally recreated, largely from the district of Kurri Kurri, at the 1968 redistribution.

In its current incarnation it has had three members to date. The first was Ken Booth who eventually became the state treasurer in the Wran and Unsworth governments. He was succeeded by John Mills, who was in turn succeeded by Sonia Hornery.

Members for Wallsend

First incarnation (1894—1904)
Member		Party	Term
	David Watkins	Labor	1894—1901
	John Estell	Labor	1901—1904
Second incarnation (1917—1920)
Member		Party	Term
	John Estell	Labor	1917—1920
Third incarnation (1927—1930)
Member		Party	Term
	Robert Cameron	Labor	1927—1930
Fourth incarnation (1968—present)
Member		Party	Term
	Ken Booth	Labor	1968—1988
	John Mills	Labor	1988—2007
	Sonia Hornery	Labor	2007—present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Wallsend

New South Wales state election, 2011: Wallsend
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Sonia Hornery	17,275	39.6	-11.5
	Liberal	Chris Dolan	12,862	29.5	+4.1
	Independent	Shayne Connell	6,147	14.1	+14.1
	Greens	Keith Parsons	3,617	8.3	-3.9
	Independent	Michael Jackson	2,013	4.6	+4.6
	Christian Democrats	Andrew Weatherstone	877	2.0	-2.7
	Family First	Ray Broderick	864	2.0	+2.0
Total formal votes			43,655	96.4	-0.4
Informal votes			1,620	3.6	+0.4
Turnout			45,275	94.1
Two-candidate preferred result
	Labor	Sonia Hornery	20,314	56.6	-9.2
	Liberal	Chris Dolan	15,574	43.4	+9.2
	Labor hold		Swing	-9.2

External links

• "Wallsend". New South Wales Electoral Commission. http://www.elections.nsw.gov.au/profiles/district_profiles/wallsend. Retrieved 2011-09-30.