Stuart – SA 2026

IND 17.0% vs LIB

Incumbent MP
Geoff Brock, since 2022. Previously member for Frome since 2009.

Geography
Northern parts of South Australia. Stuart stretches from the Upper Spencer Gulf to the Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales borders. The largest city in the electorate is Port Pirie, and it also covers most of the SA outback.

Redistribution
Stuart lost the remaining half of Port Augusta to Giles, and gained Burra, Jamestown and Spalding from Frome, Redhill from Narungga and a vast mass of north-western South Australia from Giles. That vast mass covers Roxby Downs, Coober Pedy and Woomera.

History
The electorate of Stuart was first created for the 1938 election. The seat was abolished in 1993 and restored in 1997. The seat was always held by Labor prior to 1993, and has been Liberal-held since 1997.

Stuart was held by two Labor MPs over a 51-year period until 1989, when the seat was won by Labor MP Colleen Hutchison.

In 1993, Stuart was abolished and merged into the neighbouring seat of Eyre, and Hutchison lost to the sitting Liberal MP, Graham Gunn.

Gunn had won Eyre at the 1970 state election. He served as Speaker of the House of Assembly from 1993 to 1996.

In 1997, Eyre was renamed back to Stuart, and Gunn shifted to the newly-named seat.

Gunn held Stuart at the 2002 election, and narrowly held on in 2006.

At the 2010 election, Gunn retired and he was replaced by the Liberal Party’s Dan van Holst Pellekaan. van Holst Pellekaan was re-elected in 2014 and 2018.

The seat of Stuart underwent significant changes prior to the 2022 election, losing half of Port Augusta and gaining Port Pirie. Frome independent MP Geoff Brock, who was based in Port Pirie, jumped from Frome to Stuart, winning Stuart off van Holst Pellekaan.

Candidates

Assessment
Geoff Brock has a solid hold on this seat.

2022 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing Redist
Geoff Brock Independent 10,396 48.5 +13.8 34.1
Dan Van Holst Pellekaan Liberal 6,079 28.3 -15.9 31.9
Andrew Wright Labor 3,124 14.6 -0.8 18.7
David Stone One Nation 1,192 5.6 +5.5 6.5
Beth Leese Greens 660 3.1 -1.0 2.5
Others 6.4
Informal 525 2.4

2022 two-candidate-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing Redist
Geoff Brock Independent 14,403 67.1 67.0
Dan Van Holst Pellekaan Liberal 7,048 32.9 33.0

Booth breakdown

Booths have been divided into three parts: Port Pirie, rural booths in the south of the seat, and outback booths.

Geoff Brock was absolutely dominant in Port Pirie, with 68% of the primary vote and over 80% of the two-candidate-preferred vote.

It’s hard to compare the remainder of the seat as both areas have added quite a few new areas. In the outback, Labor polled 43% of the primary vote and the Liberals polled 29%. Most of the booths were previously part of Giles.

In the rural area, the Liberal Party polled 48%, with Brock on 28% and Labor on 14%, but there are some booths here previously contained in Frome or Narungga. A strong independent did run in Frome but she polled much less than Brock.

Voter group ALP prim IND prim LIB prim Total votes % of votes
Rural 14.2 27.9 47.9 7,050 28.9
Port Pirie 11.1 68.1 14.2 5,242 21.5
Outback 43.2 1.2 28.9 1,555 6.4
Other votes 21.9 36.0 30.3 10,555 43.3

Election results in Stuart at the 2022 South Australian state election
Toggle between two-candidate-preferred votes and primary votes for independent candidate Geoff Brock, the Liberal Party and Labor.

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3 COMMENTS

  2. Declan, it is probably not much different from other states. NSW has the seat of Barwon which covers 44% of the state’s landmass.

    Australia is unique in that it has large swathes of empty land, thus forcing some of the single member districts to be very large and difficult to represent.