Electoral district of Wallsend

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Wallsend is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. Wallsend is a Newcastle suburban electorate, deriving its name from the suburb of the same name, covering 118.57 km² and encompassing at least part of the suburbs of Wallsend, Edgeworth, New Lambton, Jesmond, Shortland and Beresfield. There were 45,069 people enrolled within the electorate as of April 1999.

Wallsend was initially settled as a coal mining area and has developed into one of the poorer dormitory areas for the industrial hub of Newcastle. Throughout its history Wallsend has been a safe Labor seat. In its current creation it has had three members. The first was Ken Booth (1968 - 1988) who eventually became the state treasurer in the Wran and Unsworth governments. He was succeeded by John Mills, who was in turn succeeded by Sonia Hornery.

[edit] History

It was first created in 1894 with the abolition of multi-member districts from part of the electoral district of Newcastle, but was abolished in 1904 with the downsizing of the Legislative Assembly after Federation. It was recreated between 1917 but with the introduction of proportional representation in 1920, it was absorbed into Newcastle. In 1930, it was abolished and partly replaced by Waratah. It was finally recreated, largely from the district of Kurri Kurri, at the 1968 redistribution.

[edit] Members for Wallsend

First incarnation (1894—1904)
Member	Party affiliation	Term
David Watkins	Australian Labor Party	1894-1901
John Estell	Australian Labor Party	1901-1904
Second incarnation (1917—1920)
Member	Party	Term
John Estell	Australian Labor Party	1917-1920
Third incarnation (1927—1930)
Member	Party	Term
Robert Cameron	Australian Labor Party	1927-1930
Fourth incarnation (1968—present)
Member	Party	Term
Ken Booth	Australian Labor Party	1968-1988
John Mills	Australian Labor Party	1988-2007
Sonia Hornery	Australian Labor Party	2007-present