Division of Wentworth

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Location in Sydney

The Federal Division of Wentworth is a foundation division of the Australian Parliament, created at the Federation of the Australian Colonies as the Commonwealth of Australia. It was proclaimed in 1900 and was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. The Division is named after William Charles Wentworth (1790-1872), a noted Australian explorer and statesman. In 1813 he accompanied Blaxland and Lawson on their crossing of the Blue Mountains. It is one of only two original divisions, along with North Sydney, which have never been held by the ALP, though Jessie Street came close in the 1943 election. It was considered a blue-ribbon Liberal seat, and according the census, has the highest per-capita income of all seats in Australia.

[edit] Area

Wentworth covers an area of approximately 26 km² from Darling Point along the southern shore of Sydney Harbour to Watsons Bay and down the coast to Clovelly. The western boundary runs along Randwick Racecourse and includes Centennial Park and Paddington. The Division of Wentworth is the smallest geographical division in Australia.

It includes the suburbs of Bellevue Hill, Bondi, Bondi Beach, Bondi Junction, Bronte, Clovelly, Darling Point, Dover Heights, Double Bay, Edgecliff, North Bondi, Paddington, Point Piper, Queens Park, Randwick, Rose Bay, Vaucluse, Watsons Bay, Waverley and Woollahra.

[edit] Members

Member	Party affiliation	Period
(Sir) William McMillan	Free Trade	1901 - 1903
W H Kelly	Free Trade/Anti-Socialist/Liberal/Nationalist	1903 - 1919
Walter Marks	Nationalist	1919 - 1931
E J Harrison	UAP/LP	1931 - 1956
L H E (Les) Bury	LP	1956 - 1974
R J (Bob) Ellicott	LP	1974 - 1981
Peter Coleman	LP	1981 - 1987
(Dr) John Hewson	LP	1987 -1995
Andrew Thomson	LP	1995 - 2001
Peter King	LP	2001 - 2004
Malcolm Turnbull	LP	2004 -