Electoral district of Pilbara

The electoral district of Pilbara is a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. Pilbara is named for the region of Western Australia in which it is located. It is one of the oldest electorates in Western Australia, with its first member having been elected to the Second Parliament of the Legislative Assembly at the 1894 elections.

Pilbara
Western AustraliaLegislative Assembly
Location of Pilbara (dark green) in Western Australia
StateWestern Australia
Dates current1894–present1
MPKevin Michel
PartyLabor
NamesakePilbara region
Electors23,272 (2021)
Area292,470 km2 (112,923.3 sq mi)
DemographicProvincial, remote and rural
Electorates around Pilbara:
Indian Ocean Kimberley Kimberley
Indian Ocean Pilbara Kimberley
North West Central North West Central Kimberley
Footnotes
1known as Central Kimberley-Pilbara 2005–2008

History

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Pilbara and surrounds in 1898

Pilbara (historically spelled Pilbarra) was created at the 1893 redistribution in the Constitution Act Amendment Act 1893, through which three new electorates were created in mining and pastoral areas.[1] Its first member was elected at the 1894 election, and while normally a Labor-held seat, it has been held by the Liberals and their predecessors for significant terms.[2] In 1898, its major settlements were Marble Bar, Nullagine, and Bamboo, and it included the southern Pilbarra goldfield.[3]

Pilbara's second member, Walter Kingsmill, was a prominent member of Leake's opposition, serving as a Minister in the Leake, James and Rason governments between 1901 and 1906. The seat was first won for Labor at a 1906 by-election, which was won by Henry Underwood against Ministerial opponent John Marquis Hopkins. He became part of the National Labor movement led by John Scaddan in early 1917, and later served in a Nationalist ministry under Henry Lefroy as a minister without portfolio. He was defeated by a Labor rival, Alfred Lamond in the 1924 election, but on Lamond's retirement at the 1933 election, the seat became the only seat to switch from Labor to Nationalist in the State in what proved to be a disastrous election for the Nationalists which relegated them to third place behind the Country Party. Labor recovered the seat in 1939, who held it continuously until the 1974 election, when Charles Court's Liberals defeated Labor premier John Tonkin's one-seat majority. Labor recovered the seat when they won government again in 1983, with the seat's first female member Pam Buchanan, who later became a minister in the Lawrence government. In 1989, she shifted to the new seat of Ashburton, and Larry Graham won Pilbara for the Labor party. He resigned from the Labor party in 2000, and served as an Independent until his retirement at the 2005 election, and Labor's Tom Stephens, who had resigned his Legislative Council seat and unsuccessfully contested Kalgoorlie at the 2004 election, won the seat, which for one term was known as Central Kimberley-Pilbara due to a redistribution. The name reverted to Pilbara at the 2008 redistribution. At the 2013 election the seat was contested by National Party leader Brendon Grylls who gained the seat with 61.5% of the two party preferred vote.[4] After one term as the member for Pilbara, Grylls was defeated at the state election in 2017 by Labor's Kevin Michel.

Geography

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As of 2014, the electorate consists of the Shire of East Pilbara, the City of Karratha, as well as the Town of Port Hedland

Before 2007, The Pilbara electorate contained the eastern parts of the Shire of Ashburton, including the mining towns of Tom Price, Paraburdoo and Pannawonica; the Town of Port Hedland including Port Hedland; the Shire of East Pilbara including Newman and Marble Bar and extending to the eastern boundary of the State; and the western and northern sections of the Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku, which is relatively unpopulated (especially as it excludes the town of Warburton) was added in order to balance the land areas of Pilbara and Kalgoorlie.[5] The area's economy is centred on mining, particularly iron ore, and a significant proportion of the voting population are Aboriginal.

The 2007 redistribution, which took effect at the 2008 election, resulted in the seat losing areas it had gained in the previous distribution, including Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek in the Kimberley region, but it gained the large town of Newman from the abolished Murchison-Eyre.[6]

The 2011 redistribution, which took effect at the 2013 election, saw Pilbara gain the Shire of Roebourne from the renamed North West Central electorate, in exchange for the remnants of the Shire of Ashburton, and the Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku was ceded to the Kalgoorlie electorate. That theoretically increased Labor's hold on the seat, but the popularity of the WA Nationals' Royalties for Regions policy made it marginal, so much so that, at the election, it was comfortably won by the then Nationals' leader, Brendon Grylls.

Members for Pilbara

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Member Party Term
  Henry Keep Non-aligned 1894–1897
  Walter Kingsmill Oppositionist 1897–1903
  James Isdell Independent 1903–1904
  Ministerialist 1904–1906
  Henry Underwood Labor 1906–1917
  Nationalist 1917–1924
  Alfred Lamond Labor 1924–1933
  Frank Welsh Nationalist 1933–1939
  Bill Hegney Labor 1939–1950
  Aloysius Rodoreda Labor 1950–1958
  Arthur Bickerton Labor 1958–1974
  Brian Sodeman Liberal 1974–1983
  Pam Buchanan Labor 1983–1989
  Larry Graham Labor 1989–2000
  Independent Labor 2000–2005
  Tom Stephens Labor 2005–2013
  Brendon Grylls National 2013–2017
  Kevin Michel Labor 2017–present

Results

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2021 Western Australian state election: Pilbara[7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labor Kevin Michel 9,075 61.0 +30.1
National Scott Bourne 2,715 18.3 −9.1
Liberal Camilo Blanco 1,241 8.3 −6.9
Greens Machelle Vaughan-Cartner 504 3.4 −0.7
Shooters, Fishers, Farmers David Allison-Forrest 453 3.0 −6.5
One Nation Sandi Crouch 432 2.9 −8.5
No Mandatory Vaccination Max Elliott 270 1.8 +1.8
Western Australia Don Hyland 115 0.8 +0.8
WAxit Navneet Jawanda 68 0.5 0.0
Total formal votes 14,873 95.2 −0.2
Informal votes 748 4.8 +0.2
Turnout 15,621 67.1 −0.8
Two-candidate-preferred result
Labor Kevin Michel 10,459 70.4 +18.1
National Scott Bourne 4,408 29.6 −18.1
Labor hold  

References

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  1. ^ Government of Western Australia (1893). "Constitution Act Amendment Act (57 Vict No 14)". Statutes of Western Australia, 1893-1895. pp. 312–324. Given assent 13 October 1893.
  2. ^ Black, David; Prescott, Valerie (1997). Election statistics, Legislative Assembly of Western Australia, 1890-1996. Perth: Parliamentary History Project and Western Australian Electoral Commission. pp. 283–290. ISBN 0-7309-8409-5.
  3. ^ "Map of Western Australia shewing electoral districts and provinces, on 31st. Decr. 1898". State Library of Western Australia. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
  4. ^ "WA votes - Pilbara". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 9 March 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  5. ^ Western Australian Electoral Commission (29 October 2007). "2007 Electoral Distribution - Final Boundaries - Mining and Pastoral Region - Pilbara". Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 5 August 2008.
  6. ^ Western Australian Electoral Commission (4 August 2003). "2003 Electoral Distribution - Final Boundaries - Mining and Pastoral Region - Central Kimberley-Pilbara". Archived from the original on 18 January 2013. Retrieved 5 August 2008.
  7. ^ 2021 State General Election – Pilbara District Results, WAEC
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