Territory Northern Territory MP Yingiya Mark Guyula Demographic Remote Member of parliament Yingiya Mark Guyula Namesake Nhulunbuy | Created 1974 Electors 5,895 (2016) Founded 1974 Elector 5,895 (2016) Party Independent politician | |
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Area 83,358 km (32,184.7 sq mi) | ||
Nhulunbuy is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1974, and is named after the remote town of the same name. Nhulunbuy is a rural electorate on the Territory's northeast coast, covering 113,600 km² and taking in the towns of Nhulunbuy, Galiwinku, Yirrkala and Gapuwiyak. There were 5,895 people enrolled in the electorate as of August 2016.
Nhulunbuy has traditionally been a safe seat for the Australian Labor Party, which held the seat without a break from 1980 to 2016. Labor's dominance in the seat is mostly on the strength of strong support among indigenous voters; more than 50% of the electorate's population being indigenous. The only exception to the ALP's dominance was Milton Ballantyne, who won the seat for the Country Liberal Party in 1974 when the ALP won no seats in the Assembly. Ballantyne managed to hold on despite a strong swing to the ALP in 1977, before being easily beaten by the ALP's Dan Leo in 1980. Leo retired in 1990 and handed the seat to Syd Stirling, who went on to become deputy leader of Territory Labor, and as such became Deputy Chief Minister under Clare Martin from 2001 to 2008. Stirling stood down in 2008 and was succeeded by Lynne Walker until she was defeated by independent Yingiya Mark Guyula at the 2016 election by just eight votes, making the seat Labor's only loss in what was otherwise a landslide Labor victory result.