Electoral division of Drysdale

Drysdale is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1997, and is named after Fred Drysdale, a former member of the Legislative Council. It covers 12 km², encompassing north-western suburban areas of Palmerston including the CBD and the suburbs of Driver, Durack, Gray and Yarrawonga. There were 5,178 people enrolled within the electorate as of August 2012.

Palmerston has long been considered a conservative stronghold, and for the first eight years of its life, Drysdale was considered to be a safe seat for the Country Liberal Party. CLP candidate Stephen Dunham easily won the seat at the 1997 election and holding it at the 2001 election.

Most commentators predicted that the CLP's dominance in Drysdale would continue at the 2005 election, although the Australian Labor Party were running a high profile candidate, former AFL Northern Territory general manager Chris Natt. However, there was a significant swing to the ALP across the territory on election day, and Dunham was ultimately defeated, along with several other CLP sitting members. The final result took several days to be decided, but ultimately Natt won the seat on a swing of 17.5 percent. Even more surprisingly, he won enough primary votes to take the seat without the need for preferences. However, before the 2008 election, a redistribution erased Natt's majority and made Drysdale a notional CLP seat. Ross Bohlin regained the seat for the CLP on a large swing, but lost his preselection in 2012 and contested the election as an independent candidate. He was defeated by the CLP's endorsed candidate, Lia Finocchiaro.

Members for Drysdale

Election results

References

External links

• Division profile from the Northern Territory Electoral Commission