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Geraldton Electorate Profile (2025)

About the Geraldton Electorate

Map showing the boundaries of the Geraldton electorate for the 2021 election

PDF version of the Geraldton Electorate map PDF/pdf-file.png

Area (sq km): 26,417
Number of Electors: 31,417
Source: 2023 Final Distribution Report, Western Australian Electoral Distribution Commission.

Origin of the Name:
The largest city in Western Australia north of Perth, Geraldton is located on the coast 424 kilometres north north west of Perth. The city is located on Champion Bay, discovered by Commander D. Dring in the colonial schooner Champion in January 1840. The bay was named by the Royal Navy hydrographic surveyor, J.L. Stokes, who surveyed it in late 1840.
The Geraldton area was first explored by George Grey in 1839. In 1848, copper and lead were discovered on the Murchison River, and later that same year, Governor Charles Fitzgerald inspected the mineral deposits. The first exports of ore from the Murchison mines were made from Champion Bay in 1849, and in 1850 surveyor Augustus Gregory was instructed to survey a townsite there.
By March 1850, Gregory had surveyed 40 half-acre allotments, and on June 3 1851 the townsite of Geraldton was declared. The name was probably given by Surveyor General J.S. Roe, in honour of the colony's governor, Captain Charles Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was born in Ireland in 1791 and joined the Royal Navy in 1809. He rose to the rank of captain in 1840 and was governor of Western Australia from 1848 to 1855.
Source: Western Australia. Department of Land Administration. Names and Places.

Suburbs and Towns within the Electorate:
The electorate of Geraldton includes all or part of Ajana, Alma, Ambania, Beachlands, Beresford, Binnu, Bluff Point, Bootenal, Bowes, Bringo, Buller, Burma Road, Cape Burney, Coolcalalaya, Dartmoor, Deepdale, Devils Creek, Dindiloa, Drummond Cove, Durawah, East Bowes, East Chapman, East Nabawa, East Yuna, Ellendale, Eradu, Eradu South, Eurardy, Georgina, Geraldton, Glenfield, Greenough, Gregory, Hickety, Horrocks, Howatharra, Isseka, Kalbarri, Karloo, Kojarena, Mahomets Flats, Meru, Minnenooka, Moonyoonooka, Moresby, Mt Erin, Mt Hill, Mt Tarcoola, Mullewa, Nabawa, Nanson, Naraling, Narngulu, Narra Tarra, Nolba, North Eradu, Northern Gully, Northampton, Nunierra, Oakajee, Ogilvie, Pindar, Rangeway, Rockwell, Rudds Gully, Sandsprings, Sandy Gully, South Greenough, South Yuna, Spalding, Strathalbyn, Sunset Beach, Tarcoola Beach, Tardun, Tenindewa, Tibradden, Utakarra, Waggrakine, Walkaway, Wandana, Wandina, Webberton, West Binnu, West Casuarinas, West End, White Peak, Wicherina, Wongoondy, Wonthella, Woorree, Yallabatharra, Yetna and Yuna.
Source: Western Australian Electoral Commission.


Local Governments within the Electorate:
City of Greater Geraldton
Shire of Chapman Valley
Shire of Northampton

Schools
Government: Allendale Primary School; Beachlands Primary School; Binnu Primary School; Bluff Point Primary School; Champion Bay Senior High School; Chapman Valley Primary School; Geraldton Primary School; Geraldton Senior High School; Holland Street School; Kalbarri District High School; Meekatharra School of the Air; Mount Tarcoola Primary School; Mullewa District High School; Northampton District High School; Rangeway Primary School; Waggrakine Primary School; Walkaway Primary School; Wandina Primary School; Yuna Primary School

Other: Geraldton Christian College; Geraldton Flexible School; Geraldton Grammar School; Leaning Tree Steiner School; Nagle Catholic College; Our Lady of Mount Carmel School; St Francis Xavier Primary School; St John's School; St Lawrence's Primary School; St Mary's School.


Books about Geraldton:
  • Geraldton - 150 years, 150 lives (200p. Geraldton Regional Library, 2001)
  • Geraldton - a photographic history (272p. Geraldton Regional Library, 2004)
  • Mary Bain: a life of its own - a social and economic history of the City of Geraldton and the Shire of Greenough, 1846-1988 (363p. City of Geraldton, 1996)
  • Constance Norris: Memories of Champion Bay of old Geraldton (117p. Soroptimist International, 1989)
  • Helen Wilson: Geraldton sketchbook (64p. Rigby, 1976)
  • Peter Bridge: Little boy lost - Northampton in 1865 (20p. Hesperian Press, 2010)
  • Bert Keeffe: Eastward ho to Mullewa and the Murchison (188p. Mullewa Shire Council, 1995)
  • A Henville: Shire of Northampton, Western Australia, 1973 (24p. Northampton Shire Council, 1973)
  • Samille Mitchell: Kalbarri (135p. Dept of Environment and Conservation, 2009)

Statistical Profile of the Geraldton Electorate

Successive Members for the Geraldton Electorate

Constituency created under the Redistribution of Seats 2015

Name Party Term
Edward Vivian Harvey Keane   1890 - 1891
George Thomas Simpson Oppositionist 1891b - 1899
Richard Robson Independent 1899b - 1900
Robert David Hutchinson Oppositionist 1900b - 1904
Henry Carson Ministerialist 1904 - 1906
Thomas Leishman Brown Australian Labor Party 1906b - 1908
Henry Carson Ministerialist 1908 - 1911
Bronterre Washington Dooley Australian Labor Party 1911b - 1913
Samuel Richard Lewes Elliott Liberal Party 1913b - 1914
Edward Ernest Heitmann Australian Labor Party 1914 - 1917
Samuel Richard Lewes Elliott Liberal Party April 1917b - September 1917
John Collings Willcock Australian Labor Party 1917 - 1947
Edmund Henry Hartley Hall Country Party 1947 - 1950
William Hawkins Sewell Australian Labor Party 1950 - 1974
Jeffrey Phillip Carr Australian Labor Party 1974 - 1991
Robert (Bob) Clyde Bloffwitch Liberal Party 1991b - 2001
Shane Robin Hill Australian Labor Party 2001 - 2008
Ian Charles Blayney Liberal
Independent
Nationals
2008 - 24 July 2019
24 July 2019 - 17 August 2019
17 August 2019 - 2021
Lara Dalton Australian Labor Party 2021 -
By-elections for the Geraldton District
1891   Resignation of Edward Vivian Hartley Keane, November 1891. George Thomas Simpson elected.
1899   Resignation of George Thomas Simpson, 27 June 1899. Richard Robson elected.
1900   Resignation of Richard Robson, 13 June 1900. Robert David Hutchinson elected.
1906   Occasioned by the upholding of a petition against the return of Henry Carson 26 October 1906; seat declared vacant 30 October 1906.
Thomas Leishman Brown elected.
1913   Death of Bronterre Washington Dooley, 3 October 1913. Samuel Richard Lewes Elliott elected.
1917   Resignation of Edward Ernest Heitmann, 20 March 1917. Samuel Richard Lewes Elliott elected.
1991   Resignation of Jeffrey Phillip Carr, 28 February 1991. Robert (Bob) Clyde Bloffwitch elected.

b = by-election
Source:
Black, David & Valerie Prescott. Election Statistics: Legislative Assembly of Western Australia, 1890-1996. Perth, WA: Parliament of Western Australia Electoral Commission, 1997.
Parliament of Western Australia, Members (website) http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au