Created 2008 Electors 97,347 (2016) Founded 2008 Elector 97,347 | MP Melissa Price Demographic Rural Member of parliament Melissa Price | |
 | ||
Namesake Durack family of Western Australia Area 1,629,858 km (629,291.7 sq mi) Party Liberal Party of Australia | ||
The Division of Durack is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Western Australia. The Division is named after the pioneering Durack family, upon whom Dame Mary Durack based her popular historical novels. Created to replace parts of the divisions of Kalgoorlie (which has been abolished) and O'Connor, it elected its first member at the 2010 election. Sitting Kalgoorlie MP Barry Haase of the Liberal Party contested and won the seat. Haase announced he would not recontest Durack at the next election on 15 June 2013. The seat was won at the 2013 election by Liberal candidate Melissa Price.
Geography
Durack includes the northern parts of Western Australia, including the northern and central parts of the Wheatbelt, the Mid West, Gascoyne, Pilbara and the Kimberley regions. Populated areas include the city of Geraldton, Broome, Carnarvon, Derby, Dongara, Kalbarri, Karratha, Kununurra, Meekatharra, Merredin, Moora, Mukinbudin, Newman, Port Hedland and Tom Price.
At 1,629,858 km² (64 per cent of the landmass of Western Australia), Durack is the largest electorate in Australia by land area, the largest constituency in the world that practices compulsory voting, and the second largest single-member electorate in the world after Nunavut in Canada. Although physically similar in size to Mexico, the electorate has only 300 settlements.