Benambra – Victoria 2010

LIB 7.7%

Incumbent MP
Bill Tilley, since 2006.

Geography
Northeastern Victoria. Benambra covers the City of Wodonga and surrounding regional areas, including the towns of Chiltern, Yackandandah, Beechworth, Tallangatta, and Corryong.

History
Benambra has existed as an electoral district since 1877. In that time, the seat has always been held by non-Labor parties. The Country Party held the seat from 1932 to 1976, and the Liberal Party has held it since 1976.

The seat was a contest between the old liberal and conservative parties from 1877 to 1889, when Albert Craven of the conservative party won the seat. He ended up holding the seat until 1913 and joining the official Liberal Party.

In 1913, Benambra was won by Liberal John Leckie. He won the federal seat of Indi as a Nationalist in 1917, leaving Benambra. He held Indi for only one term, but he later served as a Senator for Victoria from 1934 to 1947, serving as a federal minister from 1940 to 1941.

Benambra was won in 1917 by Henry Beardmore, a conservative member who held it for the Nationalists and the United Australia Party until his death in 1932.

The Country Party’s James Paton won the seat at the ensuing by-election, and held it until his death in 1947. He was succeeded by Thomas Mitchell, also of the Country Party. Mitchell served as Attorney-General in the state government from 1950 to 1952, and held the seat until 1976.

Upon Mitchell’s retirement in 1976, the Liberal Party’s Lou Lieberman won the seat. He served as a minister in the state government from 1979 to 1982, and held Benambra until 1992. In 1993 he was elected to the federal seat of Indi, which he held until 2001.

Benambra was held from 1992 to 2006 by Tony Plowman. In 2006, he was succeeded by Bill Tilley.

Candidates

Political situation
Benambra is solid for the Liberal Party.

2006 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Bill Tilley LIB 12,135 38.62 -1.51
Lisa Mahood ALP 10,358 32.97 -5.11
Bill Baxter NAT 5,680 18.08 +5.50
Helen Robinson GRN 2,109 6.71 -0.25
Martin Corboy FF 842 2.68 +2.68
Shane Pearce IND 296 0.94 +0.94

2006 two-candidate-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Bill Tilley LIB 18,132 57.71 +3.68
Lisa Mahood ALP 13,288 42.29 -3.68

Booth breakdown
Booths in Benambra have been divided into three areas. Booths in the City of Wodonga have been grouped together. Those booths in Towong Shire have been grouped as “east”, while those in the remainder of the seat have been grouped as “west”. A majority of voters live in the Wodonga area.

The Liberal Party won a massive 67% majority in the east of the seat, with smaller majorities in the other areas.

 

Polling booths in Benambra at the 2006 state election. Wodonga in blue, East in yellow, West in green.
Voter group GRN % LIB 2CP % Total votes % of votes
Wodonga 5.85 56.38 14,318 45.61
West 9.43 53.87 6,022 19.18
East 6.42 67.79 3,176 10.12
Other votes 6.31 59.25 7,874 25.08
Two-party-preferred votes in Benambra at the 2006 state election.
Two-party-preferred votes in Benambra in the Wodonga area at the 2006 state election.

4 COMMENTS

  1. Greens don’t do very well in Wodonga. They do much better over the border in Albury. Forgive my ignorance of the area, but is there a reason behind that?

  2. Only thing that comes to mind and it is only a suspicion that would need to be checked empirically is that Wodonga has an army base – Albury has proportionately more educational related institutions.

  3. Green vote was around 13% in Beechworth (which I assume is the big 55% Labor booth in the south-west). Beechworth IIRC has/had several hospitals, psychiatric institutions and government departments located there.

    Greens also picked up 13% in Stanley, the small booth just next to Beechworth. I guess that’s from the Beechworth overflow…..any locals have any ideas about “Stanley”?

Comments are closed.