Dates current 1901–present Electors 20,024 (2017) Namesake Kalgoorlie | ||
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Area 555,448 km (214,459.7 sq mi) Demographic Electoral region of Mining and Pastoral Party National Party of Western Australia | ||
Kalgoorlie is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia.
Contents
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 between the two conservative parties.
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 Matt Birney 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 one vote, one value 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.