Electoral division of Barkly

Barkly is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1974, and is named after the Barkly Tableland area, which occupies much of the electorate. Barkly is a rural electorate, covering 442,868 km² and taking in the towns of Tennant Creek, Borroloola, Ali Curung, Warrego, Tara Aboriginal Community and Alpururulam. There were 5,690 people enrolled in the electorate as of August 2020.

Barkly
Northern TerritoryLegislative Assembly
Barkly in the Northern Territory
TerritoryNorthern Territory
Created1974
MPSteve Edgington
PartyCountry Liberal
NamesakeBarkly Tableland
Electors5,690 (2020)
Area442,868 km2 (170,992.3 sq mi)
DemographicRemote
Electorates around Barkly:
Daly Arnhem Pacific Ocean
Gwoja Barkly Traeger
(QLD)
Gwoja Namatjira Gregory
(QLD)

Barkly was created along with the creation of the Assembly in 1974 as a conservative-leaning marginal seat centred on the town of Tennant Creek. It was won at that election by Country Liberal Party candidate Ian Tuxworth, who later became a high-profile Cabinet minister and served as Chief Minister from 1984 to 1986. Tuxworth was comfortably re-elected as a CLP member in 1977, 1980 and 1983, but faced an extremely close race in 1987 after he quit the CLP in order to head the rival conservative NT Nationals party. He won a narrow victory over Labor Party candidate Maggie Hickey, but saw the win overturned by the Court of Disputed Returns upon a legal challenge from Hickey before again winning the resulting by-election. A redistribution ahead of the 1990 election made Barkly a notionally Labor seat, and Tuxworth mounted an ultimately unsuccessful bid for Goyder instead. Hickey was comfortably elected in Tuxworth's absence, and went on to serve as Opposition Leader from 1996 to 1999, before retiring due to ill health in 2001. Labor candidate Elliot McAdam was comfortably elected at the 2001 election before going on to serve as a minister in the Martin and Henderson Labor governments. He retired at the 2008 election, in which Labor's Gerry McCarthy was elected as his successor.

Members for Barkly edit

Member Party Term
  Ian Tuxworth Country Liberal 1974–1987
  NT Nationals 1987–1990
  Maggie Hickey Labor 1990–2001
  Elliot McAdam Labor 2001–2008
  Gerry McCarthy Labor 2008–2020
  Steve Edgington Country Liberal 2020–present

Election results edit

2020 Northern Territory general election: Barkly[1][2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Country Liberal Steve Edgington 1,431 41.6 +24.6
Labor Sid Vashist 1,238 36.0 −12.6
Independent Gadrian Hoosan 663 19.3 +19.3
Independent Daniel Mulholland 109 3.2 +3.2
Total formal votes 3,441 95.7 N/A
Informal votes 156 4.3 N/A
Turnout 3,597 63.2 N/A
Two-party-preferred result
Country Liberal Steve Edgington 1,723 50.1 +15.9
Labor Sid Vashist 1,718 49.9 −15.9
Country Liberal gain from Labor Swing +15.9

Sister cities edit

  Uintah County, Utah, United States

References edit

  1. ^ "Electorate summary: Barkly". NTEC. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  2. ^ "Barkly". ABC Elections. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 7 September 2020.

External links edit

19°38′50″S 134°11′25″E / 19.64722°S 134.19028°E / -19.64722; 134.19028