Electoral district of Melbourne

This article is about the Victorian state electorate. For the seat of the New South Wales Legislative Council (known as City of Melbourne 1848–51), see Electoral district of Town of Melbourne. For former electorates of the Victorian Legislative Council, see Electoral district of City of Melbourne and Melbourne Province. For the federal electorate, see Division of Melbourne.

Melbourne Victoria—Legislative Assembly
Location of Melbourne (dark green) in Greater Melbourne
State	Victoria
Dates current	1856–1859 1889–present
MP	Ellen Sandell
Party	Greens
Namesake	Melbourne
Electors	54,533 (2022)
Area	25 km^2 (9.7 sq mi)
Demographic	Central Metropolitan
Coordinates	37°48′14″S 144°56′28″E
Electorates around Melbourne: Essendon Brunswick Brunswick Footscray Melbourne Richmond Footscray Albert Park Prahran

The electoral district of Melbourne is an electorate of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. It currently includes the localities of Docklands, Carlton, Melbourne, East Melbourne, West Melbourne, North Melbourne, Parkville, Newmarket, Kensington and Flemington, and includes Melbourne University. The district has been in existence since 1856 (it was abolished in 1859 and reestablished in 1889).

Melbourne, 1855

The electorate was won in 2014 for the first time by Greens candidate Ellen Sandell.

History

Melbourne was one of the inaugural districts of the first Assembly in 1856.^[1] Its area was defined by the 1855 Act as:

Commencing at a Point in the Yarra Yarra River due South from the South-western Angle of Gisborne Street, thence to Gisborne Street, and by the Western Side of that Street to Victoria Parade, thence by the South Side of Victoria Parade to the Western Side of Nicholson Street, thence by the said Western Side of Nicholson Street Northwards to the Boundary Line of the Corporate Limits of Melbourne, thence by the last-mentioned Boundary Line bearing West to the Moonee Ponds, by the said Moonee Ponds downwards to the Site of Main’s Bridge,^[a] thence by a Line bearing South to the Yarra Yarra River, and on the South by the Yarra Yarra River to the commencing Point.^[1]

^a now Flemington Bridge

Melbourne was abolished in 1859, its area was split into the new electoral districts of East Melbourne and West Melbourne, each having two members.^[2]

Melbourne was re-created as a single-member electorate by the Electoral Act Amendment Act 1888^[3] which took effect at the 1889 elections.

Since 1908 the seat had been traditional Labor territory since 1908, but had become increasingly marginal against the Greens since 2002. Senior Labor minister Bronwyn Pike successfully held the seat against strong Greens challenges at three subsequent elections, defeating future Greens Senator Richard Di Natale in 2002 and 2006, and prominent lawyer Brian Walters in 2010. Pike resigned in 2012, and Labor candidate and City of Melbourne councillor Jennifer Kanis retained the seat after a closely contested by-election, which saw her finish second on primary votes to Greens candidate Cathy Oke but win on preferences. Kanis lost the seat to Greens candidate Ellen Sandell at the 2014 election. Along with the seat of Prahran it was the first win for the Greens in the Victorian Legislative Assembly.

Members

First incarnation (1856–1859, 5 members)[4]
Member 1		Party	Term	Member 2		Party	Term	Member 3		Party	Term	Member 4		Party	Term	Member 5		Party	Term
	Archibald Michie	None	1856–1859		David Moore	None	1856–1859		John Smith[5]	None	1856–1859		William Stawell	None	1856–1857		John O'Shanassy[6]^#	None	1856
													James Service	None	1857–1859		Henry Langlands	None	1857–1859

Second incarnation (1889–present, 1 member)
Member		Party	Term
	Godfrey Carter	None	1889–1900
	Edward Findley	Labour	1900–1901
	James Boyd	Ministerialist	1901–1908
	Alexander Rogers	Labor	1908–1924
	Tom Hayes	Labor	1924–1955
		Labor (Anti-Communist)	1955–1955
	Arthur Clarey	Labor	1955–1972
	Barry Jones	Labor	1972–1977
	Keith Remington	Labor	1977–1988
	Neil Cole	Labor	1988–1999
	Bronwyn Pike	Labor	1999–2012
	Jennifer Kanis	Labor	2012–2014
	Ellen Sandell	Greens	2014–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Melbourne

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2022 Victorian state election (Legislative Assembly) § Melbourne.[edit]

2022 Victorian state election: Melbourne^[7]^[8]^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Greens	Ellen Sandell	15,855	37.3	−1.3
	Labor	Rebecca Thistleton	13,033	30.6	−5.1
	Liberal	George Palackalody	7,522	17.7	+0.3
	Victorian Socialists	Colleen Bolger	2,323	5.5	+5.5
	Reason	Nicola Foxworthy	1,601	3.8	0.0
	Animal Justice	Rabin Bangaar	701	1.6	−0.3
	Family First	Michael Janson	535	1.3	+1.3
	Freedom	Steven J. Smith	521	1.2	+1.2
	Ind. (Indigenous)	Laylah Al-Saimary	428	1.0	+1.0
Total formal votes			42,519	96.6	+1.3
Informal votes			1,485	3.4	−1.3
Turnout			44,004	80.7	+0.1
Notional two-party-preferred count
	Labor	Rebecca Thistleton	31,895	75.0	+0.6
	Liberal	George Palackalody	10,624	25.0	−0.6
Two-candidate-preferred result
	Greens	Ellen Sandell	25,593	60.2	+8.5
	Labor	Rebecca Thistleton	16,926	39.8	−8.5
	Greens hold		Swing	+8.5

Historical maps

• 
  Location of Melbourne district in 1856

Notes

^# O'Shanassy won both Melbourne and Kilmore districts, he decided to represent the latter resulting in a by-election for Melbourne.^[10]

External links

• Victorian Electoral Commission profile of the district of Melbourne
• Map of the district of Melbourne (.pdf file) Archived 4 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine 2013
• Electoral District of Melbourne, 1855^[11]
• Article "Seat of many faces, many landmarks" from The Age

References

1. "Victoria Constitution Act 1855" (PDF). Retrieved 3 January 2014.
2. "An Act to alter the Electoral Districts of Victoria and to increase the number of Members of the Legislative Assembly thereof" (PDF). 1858. Retrieved 9 June 2013.
3. "The Electoral Act Amendment Act 1888" (pdf). Retrieved 3 January 2014.
4. "The Victorian Parliament". South Australian Register. Trove. 3 October 1856. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
5. Eastwood, Jill. "Smith, John Thomas (1816–1879)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
6. Edward Sweetman (1920). Constitutional Development of Victoria, 1851-6. Whitcombe & Tombs Limited. p. 183. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
7. Green, Antony (11 January 2023). "VIC22 – 2-Party Preferred Results and Swings by District". Antony Green's Election Blog. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
8. VIC 2021 Final Redistribution, ABC News. [Retrieved 1 January 2023.
9. Melbourne District results, Victorian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
10. "Political Condition. The New Parliament". The Argus. Trove. 29 October 1856. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
11. "Central Province and Electoral Districts of Melbourne, St Kilda, Collingwood, South Melbourne, Richmond and Williamstown" (map). State Library of Victoria. 27 November 1855. Retrieved 12 May 2013.