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The Australian House of Representatives is elected from 150 single-member districts called Divisions. They are also commonly known as electorates or seats. The British term "constituencies" is rarely used.

Apportionment[]

Divisions are apportioned among the states and territories of Australia in accordance with section 24 of the Australian Constitution and the Electoral Act[1] Generally, apportionment among the states and territories is based on population, with the following provisos:

  • Each original state must have at least 5 Members of Parliament (a provision that gives Tasmania more representation than its population would suggest)
  • The Northern Territory is allocated slightly more representation under recent legislative amendments
  • The Constitution mandates that the House of Representatives should be approximately twice as large as the Senate

Within each state and territory, boundaries must be redrawn in a process known as redistribution at least once every 7 years, or when the state's entitlement to the number of MPs change. Boundaries are drawn by Redistribution Committee, and apportionment within a state is on the basis of the number of enrolled voters rather than total residents.

Within a state or territory, the number of enrolled voters in each Division can not vary by more than 10% from the average across the state, nor can the number of voters vary by more than 3.5% from the average projected enrolment three-and-a-half years into the future.

Naming[]

The Divisions of the House of Representatives are unusual in that many of them are not named after geographical features or numbered, as is the case in most other legislatures around the world. Most Divisions are named in honour of prominent historical people, such as former politicians (often Prime Ministers), explorers, artists and engineers.

In some cases where a Division is named after a geographical locality, the connection to that locality is sometimes tenuous. For instance, the Division of Werriwa, created in 1901, was named after the Aboriginal word for Lake George in the Canberra region. However, Werriwa has not contained Lake George for many decades, and has steadily moved some 200km north to the south-western suburbs of Sydney over the past century.

The redistribution, creation and abolition of Divisions is the responsibility of the Australian Electoral Commission. Some of the criteria the AEC use when naming new Divisions are listed below:[2]

  • Name divisions after deceased Australians who have rendered outstanding service to their country, with consideration given to former Prime Ministers
  • Retain the original names of Divisions proclaimed at Federation in 1901
  • Avoid geographical place names
  • Where appropriate use Aboriginal names
  • Do not duplicate names of state electoral districts

List of Commonwealth Electoral Divisions, 2019-[]

The maps below show the Division boundaries as they existed at the Australian federal election, 2019.

New South Wales[]

There are 46 Divisions:

Sydney divisions overview 2010

Electoral divisions: Sydney area

Outside Sydney divisions overview 2010

Electoral divisions: Outside Sydney area

Rest of New South Wales divisions overview 2010

Electoral divisions: Rest of New South Wales

  • Banks
  • Barton
  • Bennelong
  • Berowra
  • Blaxland
  • Bradfield
  • Calare
  • Chifley
  • Cook
  • Cowper
  • Cunningham
  • Dobell
  • Eden-Monaro
  • Farrer
  • Fowler
  • Gilmore
  • Grayndler
  • Greenway
  • Hughes
  • Hume
  • Hunter
  • Kingsford Smith
  • Lindsay
  • Lyne
  • Macarthur
  • Mackellar
  • Macquarie
  • McMahon
  • Mitchell
  • New England
  • Newcastle
  • North Sydney
  • Page
  • Parkes
  • Parramatta
  • Paterson
  • Reid
  • Richmond
  • Riverina
  • Robertson
  • Shortland
  • Sydney
  • Warringah
  • Watson
  • Wentworth
  • Werriwa

Victoria[]

Melbourne divisions overview 2010

Electoral divisions: Melbourne area

Outside Melbourne divisions overview 2010

Electoral divisions: Outside Melbourne area

Rest of Victoria divisions overview 2010

Electoral divisions: Rest of Victoria

There are 38 Divisions:

  • Aston
  • Ballarat
  • Bendigo
  • Bruce
  • Calwell
  • Casey
  • Chisholm
  • Cooper
  • Corangamite
  • Corio
  • Deakin
  • Dunkley
  • Flinders
  • Fraser
  • Gellibrand
  • Gippsland
  • Goldstein
  • Gorton
  • Higgins
  • Holt
  • Hotham
  • Indi
  • Isaacs
  • Jagajaga
  • Kooyong
  • Lalor
  • La Trobe
  • McEwen
  • Macnamara
  • Mallee
  • Maribyrnong
  • Melbourne
  • Menzies
  • Monash
  • Nicholls
  • Scullin
  • Wannon
  • Wills

Queensland[]

There are 30 Divisions:

Brisbane divisions overview 2010

Electoral divisions: Brisbane area

Outside Brisbane divisions overview 2010

Electoral divisions: Outside Brisbane area

Rest of Queensland divisions overview 2010

Electoral divisions: Rest of Queensland

  • Blair
  • Bonner
  • Bowman
  • Brisbane
  • Capricornia
  • Dawson
  • Dickson
  • Fadden
  • Fairfax
  • Fisher
  • Flynn
  • Forde
  • Griffith
  • Groom
  • Herbert
  • Hinkler
  • Kennedy
  • Leichhardt
  • Lilley
  • Longman
  • Maranoa
  • McPherson
  • Moncrieff
  • Moreton
  • Oxley
  • Petrie
  • Rankin
  • Ryan
  • Wide Bay
  • Wright

Western Australia[]

There are 15 Divisions:

Perth divisions overview 2010

Electoral divisions: Perth area

Outside Perth divisions overview 2010

Electoral divisions: Outside Perth area

Rest of Western Australia divisions overview 2010

Electoral divisions: Rest of Western Australia

  • Brand
  • Canning
  • Cowan
  • Curtin
  • Durack
  • Forrest
  • Fremantle
  • Hasluck
  • Moore
  • O'Connor
  • Pearce
  • Perth
  • Stirling
  • Swan
  • Tangney

South Australia[]

There are 10 Divisions:

Adelaide divisions overview 2010

Electoral divisions: Adelaide area

Rest of South Australia divisions overview 2010

Electoral divisions: Rest of South Australia

  • Adelaide
  • Barker
  • Boothby
  • Grey
  • Hindmarsh
  • Kingston
  • Makin
  • Mayo
  • Spence
  • Sturt


Tasmania[]

There are 5 Divisions:

Tasmania divisions overview 2010

Electoral divisions: Tasmania

  • Bass
  • Braddon
  • Clark
  • Franklin
  • Lyons

The Territories[]

Australian Capital Territory divisions overview 2010

Electoral divisions: Australian Capital Territory

Division of Lingiari 2010

Division of Lingiari in Northern Territory

Division of Solomon 2010

Division of Solomon in Northern Territory

Australian Capital Territory

There are 2 Divisions:

  • Canberra
  • Bean

Northern Territory

There are 2 Divisions:

Abolished Divisions[]

These Australian electoral divisions no longer exist.

  • Angas (1903-34) (SA)
  • Angas (1949-77) (SA)
  • Australian Capital Territory
  • Balaclava (VIC)
  • Barrier (NSW)
  • Batman (VIC)
  • Bland (NSW)
  • Bonython (SA)
  • Bourke (VIC)
  • Burke (1949-55) (VIC)
  • Burke (1969-2004) (VIC)
  • Canobolas (NSW)
  • Charlton (NSW)
  • Cook (1906-55) (NSW)
  • Coolgardie (WA)
  • Corinella (1901-06) (VIC)
  • Corinella (1990-96) (VIC)
  • Dalley (NSW)
  • Dampier (WA)
  • Darebin (VIC)
  • Darling (NSW)
  • Darling Downs (QLD)
  • Darwin (TAS)
  • Denison (TAS)
  • Diamond Valley (VIC)
  • Dundas (NSW)
  • East Sydney (NSW)
  • Echuca (VIC)
  • Evans (NSW)
  • Fawkner (VIC)
  • Fraser (ACT)
  • Grampians (VIC)
  • Gwydir (NSW)
  • Hawker (SA)
  • Henty (VIC)
  • Higinbotham (VIC)
  • Hoddle (VIC)
  • Illawarra (NSW)
  • Isaacs (1949-69) (VIC)
  • Kalgoorlie (WA)
  • Laanecoorie (VIC)
  • Lang (NSW)
  • Lawson (NSW)
  • Lowe (NSW)
  • McMillan (VIC)
  • Martin (NSW)
  • Division of Melbourne Ports (VIC)
  • Mernda (VIC)
  • Moira (VIC)
  • Murray (VIC)
  • Namadgi (ACT)
  • Nepean (NSW)
  • Northern Melbourne (VIC)
  • Northern Territory
  • Oxley (1901-34) (QLD)
  • Parkes (1901-69) (NSW)
  • Phillip (NSW)
  • Riverina-Darling (NSW)
  • Scullin (1955-69) (VIC)
  • South Australia (SA)
  • South Sydney (NSW)
  • Southern Melbourne (VIC)
  • St George (NSW)
  • Streeton (VIC)
  • Tasmania (TAS)
  • Throsby (NSW)
  • Watson (1934-69) (NSW)
  • West Sydney (NSW)
  • Wilmot (TAS)
  • Wimmera (VIC)
  • Yarra (VIC)

See also[]

  • For a list of members of the current House of Representatives and the electorates they represent, see List of members of the Australian House of Representatives.
  • For a description of how the House of Representatives is elected, see Australian electoral system.

External links[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Australian Electoral Commission.Research Report 4 - Australian Federal Redistributions 1901-2003. Accessed May 5, 2008.
  2. ^ Australian Electoral Commission. Guideline for Naming Divisions. August 3, 2007. Accessed May 5, 2008.


This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.
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