Division of Darling

Darling Australian House of Representatives Division
Created:	1901
Abolished:	1977
Namesake:	Darling River

The Division of Darling was an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was created in 1900 and was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. From 1901 until 1922 it was based on Bourke, Cobar, Nyngan, Coonamble and Gilgandra. From 1906 it also included Dubbo. The 1922 redistribution increased the number of voters in some rural electorates and as a result the division of Barrier was abolished with most of its population, including the large mining town of Broken Hill, Wentworth and Balranald, was absorbed by Darling along with Hay from Riverina. Dubbo was transferred to Gwydir in 1922 but returned to Darling in 1934. In 1948, Dubbo, Gilgandra and Coonamble were transferred to the new division of Lawson and Hay and Balranald were transferred to Riverina. In 1955 Coonamble returned to Darling. In 1977 it was abolished with Broken Hill and Wentworth going to Riverina and Bourke, Cobar, Nyngan and Coonamble going to Gwydir.^[1]

Darling was named for the Darling River. It was a safe seat for the Australian Labor Party throughout its history. Its most prominent member was William Spence, one of the founders of the Labor Party and the Australian Workers Union.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	William Spence	Labor	1901–1916
		Nationalist	1916–1917
	Arthur Blakeley	Labor	1917–1934
	Joe Clark	Lang Labor	1934–1936
		Labor	1936–1969
	John FitzPatrick	Labor	1969–1977

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Darling

References

1. ^ Rhodes, Glenn (1989). Commonwealth of Australia 1901-1988 Electoral Distributions. Commonwealth of Australia. ISBN 0644 08083 3.