Flinders is a single-member electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. It is named after explorer Matthew Flinders, who was responsible for charting most of the state's coastline. It is a large coastal rural electorate encompassing the Eyre Peninsula and the coast along the Nullarbor Plain, based in and around the city of Port Lincoln and contains the District Councils of Ceduna, Cleve, Elliston, Lower Eyre Peninsula, Streaky Bay and Wudinna; as well as the localities of Fowlers Bay, Nullarbor and Yalata in the Pastoral Unincorporated Area.
History Flinders is the only one of the original 17 electorates to be contested at every election.
Flinders was also the name of an electoral district of the unicameral South Australian Legislative Council from 1851 until its abolition in 1857.
Created as a single-member electorate in 1857, it was a dual-member electorate 1862–1875, 1884–1902 and 1915–1938, and a three-member electorate 1875–1884 and 1902–1915.
A single-member electorate since 1938, it was held by Edward Craigie of the Single Tax League from 1938 to 1941. It has been in the hands of a conservative party–the Liberals (and their predecessors, the Liberal and Country League) or the Nationals–ever since. For most of that time, it has been safely conservative even by the standards of rural South Australia, although Labor came close to winning it with a 46.5 percent two-party-preferred vote at the 1962 election. Members have typically held the seat for 10 to 20 years.
The LCL/Liberal hold on the seat was broken in 1973 when Peter Blacker claimed the seat for the Nationals, then known as the Country Party. He held it until 1993, when Kangaroo Island was briefly redistributed to Flinders, allowing Liberal Liz Penfold to take the seat on a large swing of over 14 percent. Penfold actually won enough votes on the first count to win the seat outright. Blacker sought a rematch in 1997, after Kangaroo Island was removed. However, without the advantages of incumbency, Blacker not only lost, but suffered a further swing of three percent. The seat has reverted to form, and has been a comfortably safe Liberal seat ever since.
The seat was expanded in 2002 to include a western strip of land all the way to the Western Australia border.
Members for Flinders Member Party Term Marshall MacDermott 1857–1859 W. J. Browne 1860–1862
Member Party TermMember Party Term Alfred Watts1862–1866 Charles Lindsay 1862–1865 John Williams1865–1868 Augustine Stow 1866–1868 Alfred Watts1868–1875 W. R. Mortlock 1868–1870 Hampton Gleeson 1870–1871 W. R. Mortlock 1871–1875
Member Party TermMember Party TermMember Party Term P. B. Coglin1875–1881 John Williams 1875–1878 Ebenezer Cooke1875–1882 W. R. Mortlock1878–1884 Andrew Tennant1881–1884 P. B. Coglin 1882–1884
Member Party TermMember Party Term Andrew Tennant 1884–1887 John Moule1884–1896 William Horn 1887–1893 Alexander PoyntonLabor1893–1901 W. T. Mortlock 1896–1899 David McKenzie1899–1902 W. T. Mortlock 1901–1902
Member Party TermMember Party TermMember Party Term Richard Foster National League 1902–1904 David McKenzie1902–1905 Thomas Burgoyne National League 1902–1904 Farmers and Producers1904–1906 Farmers and Producers1904–1906 A. H. Inkster 1905–1906 John TraversLiberal and Democratic1906–1910 Liberal and Democratic 1906–1907 Liberal and Democratic1906–1910 E. H. Warren Farmers and Producers 1907–1910 James O'Loghlin Labor 1910–1912 James MoseleyLiberal Union1910–1915 Liberal Union1910–1915 John Travers Liberal Union 1912–1915
Member Party TermMember Party Term John Travers Liberal Union 1915–1918 James MoseleyLiberal Union1915–1923 John ChapmanCountry1918–1924 Liberal Federation1923–1932 John O'Connor Labor 1924–1927 Edward Coles Country Party 1927–1928 Liberal Federation 1928–1930 Edward CraigieSingle Tax1930–1938 Liberal and Country 1932–1933 Arthur Christian Liberal and Country 1933–1938
Member Party Term Edward Craigie Single Tax 1938–1941 Rex Pearson Liberal and Country 1941–1951 Glen Pearson Liberal and Country 1951–1970 John Carnie Liberal and Country 1970–1973 Peter Blacker Nationals SA 1973–1993 Liz Penfold Liberal 1993–2010 Peter Treloar Liberal 2010–2022 Sam Telfer Liberal 2022–present
Election results
Notes
References ECSA profile for Flinders: 2018 ABC profile for Flinders: 2018 Poll Bludger profile for Flinders: 2018
External links