Division of Wakefield

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The Division of Wakefield is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of South Australia. It is located north of Adelaide, incorporating the outer northern suburbs of Salisbury and Elizabeth, and extending north as far as Clare. It covers the east coast of the Gulf Saint Vincent north of Adelaide, all the way to Port Wakefield. It also includes the towns of Balaklava, Tarlee, Kapunda and Gawler.

The Division was named after Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who promoted colonisation as a tool for social engineering, plans which formed the basis for settlements in South Australia, Western Australia, New Zealand and Canada. It was proclaimed at the redistribution of October 2, 1903, when South Australia was first broken up into Divisions. It was first contested at the 1903 Federal election. The seat is currently a marginal Liberal seat. It has previously been held by Neil Andrew, a former Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives. It was first held by Hon Sir Frederick Holder, the first Speaker of the House, who was also twice the Premier of South Australia.

Before the redistribution for the 2004 election, Wakefield was predominantly rural, including the Barossa Valley area, but not the Salisbury, Elizabeth and Smithfield areas. The northern suburbs were added to Wakefield when the Division of Bonython was abolished by the redistribution. As a rural electorate it was much more safely Liberal-held than it is now. David Fawcett currently holds a two party preferred margin of 0.7 percent in this seat leading up to the 2007 federal election.^[1]