Electoral district of Lyell

The Electoral district of Lyell was a single-member electoral district of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. It included the towns of Queenstown and Strahan in the West Coast region of Tasmania.

The seat was created in a redistribution in 1899, and was abolished when the Tasmanian parliament adopted the Hare-Clark electoral model in 1909. It was first filled at a by-election on 10 April 1899, notable for being the first occasion on which the Labor Party contested a Tasmanian seat. Its candidate, R. Matthews, gained 40% of the votes ^[1]

In 1903, Labor's James Long won the seat.^[2] At the 1909 election he successfully transferred to the multi-member seat of Darwin (now known as Braddon), but resigned the following year to successfully contest an Australian Senate seat.

Members for Lyell

Member		Party	Term
	James Gaffney	Liberal	1899–1903
	James Long	Labour	1903–1909

Notes

1. "POLITICAL.". Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 - 1899) (Tas.: National Library of Australia). 19 April 1899. p. 7. Retrieved 28 June 2015..
2. "Election Campaign.". Zeehan and Dundas Herald (Tas. : 1890 - 1922) (Tas.: National Library of Australia). 18 March 1903. p. 3. Retrieved 28 June 2015.

References

• Newman, Terry (1994). Representation of the Tasmanian People. Tasmanian Parliamentary Library. ISBN 0-7246-4147-5.
• Hughes, Colin A.; Graham, B. D. (1976). Voting for the South Australian, Western Australian and Tasmanian Lower Houses, 1890-1964. Canberra: Australian National University. ISBN 0-7081-1334-6.
• Parliament of Tasmania (2006). The Parliament of Tasmania from 1956