LIB 4.7%
Incumbent MP
Melissa Price, since 2013.
Geography
North of Western Australia. Durack covers a majority of Western Australia’s landmass, stretching from the northern Wheatbelt outside of Perth, covering the coast all the way to the Northern Territory border. Major towns include Geraldton, Broome and Port Hedland.
Redistribution
Durack took in the Cunderdin, Kellerberrin, Koorda, Merredin, Mount Marshall, Mukinbudin, Nungarin, Tammin, Trayning, Westonia and Wyalkatchem council areas from O’Connor, and lost the Northam, Toodyay and York council areas to the new seat of Bullwinkel. These changes slightly increased the Liberal margin from 4.3% to 4.7%.
History
Durack was created in 2010, out of northern parts of O’Connor and Kalgoorlie.
Kalgoorlie had previously swung between Labor and Liberal, and was held by the ALP’s Graeme Campbell from 1980.
Campbell was expelled from the ALP in 1995, and was re-elected in 1996.
Campbell lost to the Liberal Party’s Barry Haase in 1998.
Haase moved to Durack in 2010, and won a fifth term.
Haase retired in 2013, and was succeeded by Liberal candidate Melissa Price, who has been re-elected three times.
Assessment
Durack is a safe Liberal seat.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Melissa Price | Liberal | 30,736 | 34.3 | -10.2 | 35.4 |
| Jeremiah Riley | Labor | 26,093 | 29.1 | +6.5 | 28.8 |
| Bianca McNeair | Greens | 8,457 | 9.4 | +1.4 | 9.5 |
| Ian Blayney | Nationals | 9,160 | 10.2 | +2.5 | 9.4 |
| Brenton Johannsen | One Nation | 6,174 | 6.9 | -2.7 | 7.0 |
| Adrian McRae | Great Australian Party | 2,738 | 3.1 | +3.1 | 3.0 |
| Anthony Fels | Western Australia Party | 2,483 | 2.8 | -0.5 | 2.8 |
| Andrew Middleton | United Australia | 2,229 | 2.5 | -0.2 | 2.4 |
| Craig Shore | Federation Party | 1,453 | 1.6 | +1.6 | 1.5 |
| Others | 0.1 | ||||
| Informal | 6,219 | 6.5 | +1.1 |
2022 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Melissa Price | Liberal | 48,583 | 54.3 | -9.2 | 54.7 |
| Jeremiah Riley | Labor | 40,940 | 45.7 | +9.2 | 45.3 |
Booths have been divided into six areas. Those in the Geraldton urban area have been grouped together. The rest of the electorate was split into five areas. From north to south, these are Kimberley, Pilbara, Gascoyne, Mid West and Wheatbelt.
The Liberal Party won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in four areas, ranging from 50.7% in Gascoyne to 66.8% in Mid West. Labor polled 55.4% in Pilbara and 61% in Kimberley.
The Greens came third, with a vote ranging from 5.5% in Mid West to 14.3% in Gascoyne. The Nationals had a vote ranging from 3.2% in Kimberley to 16.4% in Mid West.
| Voter group | GRN prim | NAT prim | LIB 2PP | Total votes | % of votes |
| Wheatbelt | 6.5 | 8.8 | 63.9 | 12,076 | 14.5 |
| Geraldton | 9.8 | 16.1 | 54.7 | 9,057 | 10.9 |
| Pilbara | 9.8 | 4.6 | 44.6 | 8,371 | 10.1 |
| Mid West | 5.5 | 16.4 | 66.8 | 4,638 | 5.6 |
| Kimberley | 13.2 | 3.2 | 39.0 | 3,693 | 4.4 |
| Gascoyne | 14.3 | 6.9 | 50.7 | 1,829 | 2.2 |
| Pre-poll | 10.2 | 9.2 | 52.9 | 27,850 | 33.5 |
| Other votes | 10.0 | 8.9 | 56.6 | 15,663 | 18.8 |
Election results in Durack at the 2022 federal election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal Party, Labor, the Greens and the Nationals.
What’s with the high Greens vote in Coral Bay (Durack)?
On state election figures would win here
@SpaceFish Coral Bay is where Ningaloo Reef is, so I’d imagine there’s a natural conservation theme in this part of the world vs the rest of regional WA.
@Tommo9
Thanks for that.
@Mick
?
@SpaceFish @Tommo9 is right, but this booth also marginally voted No to the Voice (55.0% No vs 45.0% Yes).
I think it’s one of those less progressive hippie areas that are slowly trending conservative as the right starts to care more about nature and conservation and the left starts to become woker and more out of touch. Elands in Lyne is a good example of this, it only marginally voted Yes but has usually been a Greens booth surrounded by particularly conservative Nationals booths (Comboyne and Long Flat are the most conservative booths in Lyne) in a safe Nationals seat.
Coral Bay is a small community where the entire economy is based on environmental tourism related to Ningaloo Reef.
https://www.australiascoralcoast.com/destinations/ningaloo/coral-bay
https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2021/SAL50338
The hippie movement was in the 1960s. Any hippies that are still alive, they would be aged well over 70. At the 2021 census, there were only 5 people in Coral Bay aged over 70.
Currently doing the 80%+ booths table and found an interesting booth here: Remote Mobile Team 13, aka Camballin. Might be one of the most puzzling results I’ve seen.
Primary votes:
* Australian Christians: 28.1% (+28.1%)
* Liberal: 25.6% (+6.9%)
* Labor: 15.9% (–34.8%)
* Indigenous Party: 9.8% (+9.8%)
* Legalise Cannabis: 7.3% (+7.3%)
* Greens: 6.1% (–1.8%)
* One Nation: 4.9% (+2.5%)
* TOP: 0.0% (–6.3%)
TPP:
* Liberal: 63.4%
* Labor: 36.6%
Camballin is a very Aboriginal town and, like most remote communities, is majority Christian. However I’m not sure why the vote for the Australian Christians was so high given they were last on the ballot and Eugenie Harris is from Geraldton.
But what’s puzzling is not only did the Australian Christians get the most votes, but Labor’s vote was obliterated at the expense of them and to a much lesser extent the Liberals and minor parties. More than half of the people who voted Labor in 2022 voted for someone else in 2025.
Over 2/3 actually
@John exactly which is puzzling. It was quite a good election for Labor (though Indigenous communities don’t always vote with the rest of the country) and the Christians are a minor party that I don’t think have ever won a booth before.
@ Nether Portal
Some Indigenous communities are very religious especially Tiwi Islands and Torrest Staght Islands so maybe interesting if DLP could so well there as they are very Catholic.
@Nimalan the thing is though the turnout in these communities is really low and so is political information. Lots of their communities vote Labor but they aren’t the same ideological Labor voters as the union members of the cities.
Also it isn’t always Catholicism they follow, often it’s Protestantism or Lutheranism depending on what denomination the mission was back in the day. In the Territory for example (using 2021 census stats), Santa Teresa (Ltyentye Apurte; 93.4% Indigenous, 73.3% Arrernte-speaking, 84.3% non-English-speaking) to the southeast of Alice Springs was a Catholic mission so it’s 81.8% Catholic (87.5% Christian), while Hermannsburg (Ntaria; 89.1% Indigenous, 80.2% Arrarnta speaking) was a German Lutheran mission so it’s 82.4% Lutheran (89.3% Christian).