Darling Range is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia.
The district is based to the east and south-east of Perth.
Geography Darling Range is situated in the outer east and south-east of Perth. It is a mixture of suburbia and hinterland, falling inside the Metropolitan Region Scheme and running along most of its southern and eastern boundary. The district covers all of the Shire of Serpentine-Jarrahdale as well as the less urbanised parts of the city of Armadale.
History Darling Range was first created for the 1950 state election. The seat's first member was Country MP Ray Owen, who was previously the member for Swan. The district was abolished ahead of the 1974 state election. By this time its member was Liberal MP Ian Thompson, who went on to represent the new district of Kalamunda. Darling Range was recreated one term later for the 1977 state election.
The seat was radically redistributed ahead of the 2008 state election, with 15% of the voters in the redrawn district coming from its former configuration. Half of the district's voters—and indeed the vast majority of its territory—previously belonged to the abolished district of Serpentine-Jarrahdale, with the remainder coming from Armadale and Swan Hills. Thus, sitting Serpentine-Jarrahdale member, Liberal MP Tony Simpson became the new member for Darling Range at the 2008 election, whilst the former member for Darling Range, Liberal MP John Day, successfully contested the new seat of Kalamunda.
Simpson served as the MP for Darling Range until his defeat by Barry Urban at the 2017 state election. This result marked the first time that the Labor Party had ever won the seat. In May 2018, Urban resigned from parliament as the privileges committee recommended his expulsion over a series of false claims of his credentials. At the subsequent by-election former East Metropolitan MLC Alyssa Hayden recovered the seat for the Liberals. Hayden was defeated by Labor candidate Hugh Jones at the 2021 election, marking the second time Labor had won the seat.
Members for Darling Range Darling Range (1950–1974)MemberPartyTerm Ray Owen Country 1950–1962 Ken Dunn Liberal Country League 1962–1968 Liberal 1968–1971 Ian Thompson Liberal 1971–1974Darling Range (1977–present)MemberPartyTerm George Spriggs Liberal 1977–1987 Bob Greig Liberal 1987–1989 Ian Thompson Liberal 1989–1990 Independent 1990–1993 John Day Liberal 1993–2008 Tony Simpson Liberal 2008–2017 Barry Urban Labor 2017 Independent 2017–2018 Alyssa Hayden Liberal 2018–2021 Hugh Jones Labor 2021–present
Election results
References
External links ABC election profiles: 2005 2008 2013 2017 WAEC district maps: current boundaries, previous distributions