State South Australia MP Peter Treloar Demographic Rural Member of parliament Peter Treloar Namesake Matthew Flinders | Created 1857 Electors 23,421 (2014) Founded 1857 Elector 23,421 | |
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Area 61,139 km (23,605.9 sq mi) Party Liberal Party of Australia (South Australian Division) | ||
Electoral district of flinders top 9 facts
Flinders is an electoral district of the House of Assembly in the Australian state of South Australia. It is named after explorer Matthew Flinders, who was responsible for charting most of the state's coastline. It is a 61,139 km² coastal rural electorate encompassing the Eyre Peninsula and the coast along the Nullarbor Plain, based in and around the towns of Port Lincoln and Ceduna. The seat was expanded in 2002 to include a western strip of land all the way to the Western Australia border.
Flinders is the only one of the original 17 electorates to be contested at every election. Created as a single-member electorate in 1857, it was a dual-member electorate from 1862 to 1875, from 1884 to 1902 and again from 1915 to 1938, a three-member electorate from 1875 to 1884 and again 1902 to 1915. Flinders was also the name of an electoral district of the unicameral South Australian Legislative Council from 1851 until its abolition in 1857.
A single-member seat since 1938, Edward Craigie of the Single Tax League held the seat. Though typically considered a safe rural conservative seat, Labor came close with a 46.5 percent two-party vote at the 1962 election. The seat fell to the rival conservative SA Nationals on one occasion, with Peter Blacker representing Flinders from 1973 to 1993, but he was defeated when Kangaroo Island was briefly included in Flinders, and without the advantages of incumbency, was unable to regain his seat when it was removed four years later. It has since remained a safe Liberal seat, currently the safest on a 29.2 percent margin.