Electoral district of Bulimba

Bulimba Queensland—Legislative Assembly
Bulimba (2008—)
State	Queensland
Dates current	1873–present
MP	Di Farmer
Party	Labor
Namesake	Bulimba
Electors	34,284 (2015)
Area	31 km^2 (12.0 sq mi)
Coordinates	27°28′S 153°5′E / 27.467°S 153.083°ECoordinates: 27°28′S 153°5′E / 27.467°S 153.083°E

Bulimba is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland.

The electorate covers the inner eastern suburbs of Brisbane. It is bounded on the north and the west by the Brisbane River and, as at the 2009 election, covers the suburbs of Bulimba, Balmoral, Cannon Hill, Hawthorne, Morningside, Norman Park, Murrarie and Seven Hills. The boundaries have changed relatively little since 1923; prior to that, the boundaries extended as far east as Wynnum and as far south-east as Mount Gravatt and Cleveland.

History

Bulimba has existed continuously since the 1873 election, originally covering most of the outer south-east of Brisbane.

Since the 1923 redistribution, Bulimba has strongly supported Labor. The Australian Labor Party (ALP) held the seat on all but six terms and, of those, 3 were held by an independent Labor candidate and one by a member of the Queensland Labor Party.

In the 1929 election Bulimba returned Queensland's first woman Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly (MLA), Irene Longman of the Country and Progressive National Party, for one term.

Although ALP candidate Robert Gardner was elected in Bulimba in the 1950 election, the close result caused close scrutiny of the votes and revealed that fraudulent votes had been cast in Gardner's favour. The election was ruled void, but Gardner himself was cleared of any involvement in the fraud.^[1][2] The scandal and the investigations into the fraud continued for many months. Finally, a by-election was held on 14 April 1951 (almost 12 months after the original election) with the ballot boxes under police guard.^[3] Gardner won the by-election by a narrow margin.^[4]

Prior to the 1957 election, the sitting ALP member Robert Gardner and 21 other Labor MLAs left the ALP to form the Queensland Labor Party (QLP). Gardner won the seat in the 1957 election as a member of the QLP but was defeated at the following election.

Jack Houston, a member of the ALP, represented the seat from 1957 to 1980 and was the state's Opposition Leader from 1966 until 1974.

In the 2012 election, Liberal National candidate Aaron Dillaway was elected. In the 2015 election, Bulimba was the most marginal seat held by the LNP and was regained by Di Farmer of the Labor Party.

Members for Bulimba

Member		Party	Term
	William Hemmant		1873–1876
	James Johnston		1876
	George Grimes		1876–1878
	Frederick Swanwick		1878–1882
	John Francis Buckland	Liberal	1882–1892
	James Dickson	Independent	1892–1896
		Ministerial	1896–1901
	Walter Barnes	Ministerial	1901–1903
		Conservative	1903–1909
		Ministerial/Queensland Liberal	1909–1915
	Hugh McMinn	Labor	1915–1918
	Walter Barnes	Nationalist	1918–1922
United		1922–1923
	Harry Wright	Labor	1923–1929
	Irene Longman	Country and Progressive National	1929–1932
	William Copley	Labor	1932–1938
	George Marriott	Labor	1938–1941
		Independent Labor	1941–1950
	Robert Gardner	Labor	1950–1957
		Queensland Labor	1957
	Jack Houston	Labor	1957–1980
	Ron McLean	Labor	1980–1992
	Pat Purcell	Labor	1992–2009
	Di Farmer	Labor	2009–2012
	Aaron Dillaway	Liberal National Party	2012–2015
	Di Farmer	Labor	2015–present

Election results

Queensland state election, 2015: Bulimba[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Di Farmer	14,539	47.72	+4.81
	Liberal National	Aaron Dillaway	12,755	41.87	−4.83
	Greens	David Hale	3,173	10.41	+0.02
Total formal votes			30,467	98.54	+0.27
Informal votes			450	1.46	−0.27
Turnout			30,917	90.18	−0.93
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Di Farmer	16,741	56.14	+6.28
	Liberal National	Aaron Dillaway	13,077	43.86	−6.28
	Labor gain from Liberal National		Swing	+6.28

References

1. "KEEN VOTES WATCH.". The Courier-Mail (Brisbane: National Library of Australia). 4 January 1951. p. 3. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
2. "BULIMBA FRAUD.". The Courier-Mail (Brisbane: National Library of Australia). 31 January 1951. p. 1. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
3. "Election count continues.". The Courier-Mail (Brisbane: National Library of Australia). 16 April 1951. p. 3. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
4. "BULIMBA MAJORITY STANDS TO END.". The Courier-Mail (Brisbane: National Library of Australia). 21 April 1951. p. 5. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
5. 2015 State General Election – Bulimba – District Summary, ECQ.

External links

• Electorate Profile (Antony Green, ABC)