| Central Wheatbelt Western Australia—Legislative Assembly |
|
|---|---|
| State or territory: | Western Australia |
| Dates current: | 2008–present |
| MP: | Brendon Grylls |
| Party: | National |
| Namesake: | Wheatbelt region |
| Area: | 53,898 km² (20,810 sq mi) |
| Demographic: | Agricultural |
Central Wheatbelt is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia.
As the name suggests, the district is centrally located in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia.
Politically, Central Wheatbelt is a safe National Party seat.
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Central Wheatbelt was first created for the 2008 state election. It was essentially an almagamation of the abolished National-held districts of Avon and Merredin, although parts of each ended up in neighbouring districts. Roughly half the new district's voters came from each of the two former districts.
The original proposal had the newly created district persisting with the name Merredin.[1] However, this was the focus of several objections, as Merredin is but one town in the eastern part of this sizeable electorate.[2] Instead, the more generic name of Central Wheatbelt was adopted.
The inaugural member for Central Wheatbelt is National Party leader Brendon Grylls, who was previously the member for Merredin.
Central Wheatbelt incorporates a number of rural inland shires to the east of Perth. Its population centres include Ballidu, Beacon, Beverley, Meckering, Merredin, Narembeen, Northam, Westonia, Wongan Hills, Wundowie, Wyalkatchem and York.
| Member | Party | Term | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brendon Grylls | National | 2008–present | |
| Western Australian state election, 2008: Central Wheatbelt[3] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| WA Nationals | Brendon Grylls | 8,334 | 47.79 | -7.1 | |
| Liberal | Stephen Strange | 4,471 | 25.64 | +11.9 | |
| Labor | Gerry Sturman | 2,909 | 16.68 | +1.7 | |
| Greens WA | Yvonne Dols | 996 | 5.71 | +1.5 | |
| Christian Democrats | Ross Patterson | 573 | 3.29 | +0.9 | |
| CEC | Judy Sudholz | 155 | 0.89 | +0.89 | |
| Total formal votes | 17,438 | 96.01 | |||
| Informal votes | 724 | 3.99 | |||
| Turnout | 18,162 | 88.63 | |||
| Two-candidate preferred result | |||||
| WA Nationals | Brendon Grylls | 11,806 | 67.92 | N/A | |
| Liberal | Stephen Strange | 5,577 | 32.08 | N/A | |
| WA Nationals hold | Swing | N/A | |||
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