Electoral district of Ridley

The Electoral district of Ridley was an electoral district of the South Australian House of Assembly, existing between 1938 and 1970 and between 1993 and 1997.

Named after John Ridley, the inventor of a successful threshing machine, [H. J. Finnis (1967) 'Ridley, John (1806 - 1887)', "Australian Dictionary of Biography", Volume 2, Melbourne University Press.] Ridley was a rural electorate located in the riverland area of South Australia, stretching along the southern bank of the Murray River from Morgan to the New South Wales border. [Hetherington, R. & Reid, R. (1962) "The South Australian Elections 1959", Rigby.] Ridley also contained the towns of Waikerie, Lyrup and Loxton.

Created for the 1938 South Australian election, following the change from multi-member to single-member electorates, Ridley was held by Tom Stott for its entire existence. Stott was the longest serving independent in Australian political history. [Jennings, R. (1992) "Barnacles and Parasites", Nesfield Press, Adelaide. ISBN 978-0-9599230-4-9.]

Ridley was abolished at the 1970 election, and the area subsumed into the neighbouring Electoral district of Albert.Jaensch, D. (1977) "The Government of South Australia", University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, ISBN 0702213527.]

Ridley was recreated as an electoral district in a 1991 redistribution for the 1993 election. In this incarnation, Ridley was 24,797 km² and contained the towns of Coonalpyn, Karoonda, Murray Bridge, Lameroo, Pinnaroo, Tailem Bend and Tintinara. ["South Australian State Electoral Office" (1995), "Statistical Returns for General Elections, 11 December 1993", pp. 158, 194.] It was a safe Liberal seat, existing until 1997, when it was renamed Hammond.

Members

References