Bathurst is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Australian state of New South Wales. It has been represented by Paul Toole of the Nationals since 2011.
Bathurst is a regional electorate which encompasses the entirety of the local government areas of Bathurst Region, the City of Lithgow, Blayney Shire, Oberon Shire plus the southern part of Mid-Western Regional Council (including Rylstone, Kandos and Ilford).
History Bathurst was created in 1859, partly replacing Western Boroughs. Between 1920 and 1927, it absorbed parts of Hartley and Orange and elected three members under proportional representation. In 1927 Bathurst, Hartley and Orange were recreated as single-member electorates. It was held by the Labor party for 20 years until the Coalition's landslide win in 2011, where the Nationals candidate Paul Toole recorded a swing of 36.7%, the largest in state history. Of particular note was the suburb of Eglinton, where labour support plummeted from 854 of 1,690 (50.5%) to 180 of 1,690 (10.7%) first preference votes; a precipitous decline of 79%. This trend was somewhat reversed in 2015, with Toole being re-elected by a margin of around 15,000 votes, a majority of almost two-thirds of the vote, but still down from the approximate 20,000 margin from 2011.
Members for Bathurst (1859–1920, 1 member) Member Party Term John Findlater Clements None 1859–1860 James Hart None 1860–1864 James Kemp None 1864–1866 William Suttor, Sr. None 1866–1872 Edward Combes None 1872–1874 Francis Suttor None 1875–1887 William Cortis 1887–1889 William Paul 1889–1891 Francis Suttor 1891–1894 Sydney Smith 1894–1898 Francis Suttor 1898–1900 William Young 1900–1901 1901–1907 John Miller 1907–1913 Ernest Durack 1913–1917 Valentine Johnston 1917–1920 (1920–1927, 3 members) Member Party Term Member Party Term Member Party Term Valentine Johnston 1920–1922 James Dooley 1920–1927 John Fitzpatrick 1920–1927 Charles Rosenthal 1922–1925 Gus Kelly 1925–1927 (1927–present, 1 member) Member Party Term Gus Kelly 1927–1932 Gordon Wilkins 1932–1935 Gus Kelly 1935–1967 Clive Osborne 1967–1981 Mick Clough 1981–1988 David Berry 1988–1991 Mick Clough 1991–1999 Gerard Martin 1999–2011 Paul Toole 2011–present
Election results
References