Electoral district of Mount Gambier

This article is about the Electoral district known as Mount Gambier. For other uses, see Mount Gambier (disambiguation).
Mount Gambier
South AustraliaHouse of Assembly

Map of South Australia with electoral district of Mount Gambier highlighted

Electoral district of Mount Gambier (green) in South Australia
State South Australia
Dates current 1938–1993, 2002–present
MP Troy Bell
Party Liberal Party of Australia (SA)
Namesake Mount Gambier, South Australia
Electors 23,898 (2014)
Area 1,951 km2 (753.3 sq mi)
Demographic Rural
Coordinates 37°48′37″S 140°38′4″E / 37.81028°S 140.63444°E / -37.81028; 140.63444Coordinates: 37°48′37″S 140°38′4″E / 37.81028°S 140.63444°E / -37.81028; 140.63444

Mount Gambier is an electorate for the South Australian House of Assembly. It covers the southeast part of the state centered on the city and extinct volcano of Mount Gambier, containing the City of Mount Gambier and District Council of Grant local government areas. The electorate was created in the 1936 redistribution, taking effect at the 1938 election,[1] but the name was not used between the 1993 and 2002 elections (the area was covered by Gordon during that time).

The seat was a marginal to safe Labor seat from 1958 until the 1975 election which saw permanent large two-party swings away from Labor in a few rural seats − 13.5 percent in Chaffey, 15.5 percent in Mount Gambier and 16.4 percent in Millicent. Mount Gambier has since become a safe Liberal seat, though it has had a recent history of independent MPs. It was held between 2002 and 2010 by Rory McEwen, a former Liberal party member who missed out on preselection, so stood as an independent in Gordon at the 1997 election and was successful. While he did not put Labor in office at the 2002 election, he was in various ministerial portfolios in the Mike Rann Labor government nine months after the election until his retirement at the 2010 election. McEwen was succeeded in the seat by another independent, Don Pegler, who narrowly defeated the Liberal candidate on a 0.4 percent two-candidate margin. Pegler was defeated by Liberal candidate Troy Bell at the 2014 election.

Members for Mount Gambier

First incarnation (1938–1993)
Member Party Term
  John Fletcher Independent 1938–1958
  Ron Ralston Labor 1958–1962
  Allan Burdon Labor 1962–1975
  Harold Allison Liberal 1975–1993
Second incarnation (2002–present)
Member Party Term
  Rory McEwen Independent 2002–2010
  Don Pegler Independent 2010–2014
  Troy Bell Liberal 2014–present

Election results

South Australian state election, 2014: Mount Gambier[2][3][4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Liberal Troy Bell 11,100 51.8 +9.3
Independent Don Pegler 5,872 27.4 −8.8
Labor Jim Maher 2,338 10.9 −1.5
Family First Peter Heaven 1,095 5.1 +0.8
Greens John Baseley 1,031 4.8 +2.5
Total formal votes 21,436 97.2 +0.8
Informal votes 616 2.8 −0.8
Turnout 22,052 92.3 −1.0
Two-party-preferred result
Liberal Troy Bell 71.4 +5.9
Labor Jim Maher 28.6 −5.9
Two-candidate-preferred result
Liberal Troy Bell 12,251 57.2 +7.7
Independent Don Pegler 9,185 42.8 −7.7
Liberal gain from Independent Swing +7.7

Notes

References

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