State South Australia MP Duncan McFetridge Demographic Metropolitan Area 15.6 km² Elector 23,725 | Created 1977 Electors 23,725 (2014) Founded 1977 Member of parliament Duncan McFetridge Namesake John Morphett | |
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Party Liberal Party of Australia (South Australian Division) | ||
Morphett is an electoral district of the House of Assembly in the state of South Australia. The seat is located 10 kilometres west of the centre of Adelaide, bounded by the coastline on the west and Morphett Road to the east. It is approximately 15.6 square kilometres in size covering the suburbs of Glenelg, Glenelg North, Glenelg East, Glenelg South, Glengowrie, Morphettville, West Beach and parts of Somerton Park.
Created in 1976 following an electoral redistribution and taking effect from the 1977 election, the seat of Morphett was named after Sir John Morphett (1809–1892) who lived in the Morphettville area and was speaker of the enlarged Legislative Council in 1851 and president of the elected Legislative Council from 1865 to 1873.
Morphett was the Dunstan Labor government's most and only marginal seat following the 1977 election. Created prior to the 1977 election as a notionally marginal Liberal seat, Morphett has been held by the Liberals since the 1979 election. Morphett was strengthened for the Liberals from a marginal to fairly safe seat when the seat of Glenelg was abolished at the 1983 redistribution.