Division of Werriwa

The Division of Werriwa is a Federal Electoral Division for the Australian House of Representatives.

The name Werriwa derives from a local Aboriginal name for Lake George, which was located in the division when it was established in 1900. The division was one of the original 75 divisions first contested at the first federal election. At that time, the electorate was a large rural one that stretched from the south west of Sydney to the northern part of what is now the ACT.

In succeeding years, with demographic change and electoral redistributions, Werriwa began to shrink and from 1913 onwards no longer contained Lake George. In spite of this, and further major changes to its borders that saw it become a south-western Sydney suburban electorate over 150 km away from Lake George, it has retained the name of Werriwa, primarily as it is an original Federation electorate - the Australian Electoral Commission's guidelines on electoral redistributions require it to preserve the names of original Federation electorates where possible.

Werriwa now covers an area of approximately 168 km² from Raby, St Andrews and parts of Leumeah in the south to Kemps Creek, Cecil Hills, Green Valley, Miller, Cartwright, Lurnea and Casula in the north and bounded by the Georges River to the east and generally by South Creek, Kemps Creek and the Camden/Campbelltown Council boundary to the west. The main suburbs include Austral, Cartwright, Casula, Cecil Hills, Denham Court, Edmondson Park, Glenfield, Green Valley, Hinchinbrook, Hoxton Park, Ingleburn, Kemps Creek, Leumeah (part), Lurnea, Macquarie Fields, Miller, Minto, Prestons, Raby, St Andrews, Varroville and Woodbine.

Werriwa was represented from 1994 to 2005 by Mark Latham, the former Leader of the Federal Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2003-2005. It is also remembered for being the electorate (1952-78) of Latham's mentor and one-time employer, former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.

It most recently faced a by-election in March 2005, when Labor's Chris Hayes was elected with over 55% of the vote, in a 16-candidate race which saw no other candidate poll above 8%.

Members

Election results

References

• Psephos: Adam Carr's Election Archive
• The Poll Bludger
• ABC Elections
• Australian Electoral Commission

External links

• http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2004/guide/werr.htm