ALP 11.9%
Incumbent MP
Julianna Addison, since 2018.
Geography
Wendouree covers the western suburbs of Ballarat, including Wendouree, Sebastopol, Brown Hill, Delacombe, Alfredton and Redan. The seat lies entirely within the City of Ballarat.
History
The seat of Ballarat West was renamed as Wendouree in 2014 after a long history under the former name.
Ballarat West first existed as an electoral district from 1859 to 1927, and again since 1992. The original district elected two members from 1859 until 1904, when it became a single-member district. Conservative parliamentarian Matthew Baird held the seat from 1911 to 1927.
The new Ballarat West was created at the 1992 election, and was won by the Liberal Party’s Paul Jenkins. He was re-elected in 1996, but retired in 1999, and the seat was lost to the ALP’s Karen Overington. Overington was re-elected in 2002 and 2006. She increased her margin to 9% in 2002, before it fell to 6.5% in 2006.
Overington retired in 2010, and Ballarat West was won by Labor’s Sharon Knight. Knight was re-elected in the renamed seat of Wendouree in 2014.
Knight retired in 2018, and Labor candidate Juliana Addison won the seat. Addison was re-elected in 2022.
- Juliana Addison (Labor)
- Ellen Burns (Greens)
- Melissa Collins (Animal Justice)
- Chris Meagher (Victorian Socialists)
Assessment
While Labor appears to have a very large margin here, One Nation will be a serious threat in a regional city like Ballarat.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Juliana Addison | Labor | 20,059 | 47.6 | -3.1 |
| Samantha McIntosh | Liberal | 12,548 | 29.8 | -4.1 |
| Ellen Burns | Greens | 4,386 | 10.4 | +1.4 |
| Ian Harkness | Family First | 1,616 | 3.8 | +3.8 |
| Bryn Hills | Animal Justice | 1,602 | 3.8 | +0.2 |
| Dianne Colbert | Democratic Labour | 1,509 | 3.6 | +3.6 |
| Bren Eckel | Independent | 455 | 1.1 | +0.9 |
| Informal | 2,396 | 5.4 |
2022 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Juliana Addison | Labor | 26,109 | 61.9 | +0.9 |
| Samantha McIntosh | Liberal | 16,063 | 38.1 | -0.9 |
Booths have been divided into three areas: central, north and south-west.
Labor won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 62.7% in the south-west to 66.3% in the centre.
The Greens came third, with a primary vote ranging from 10.7% in the south-west to 15.9% in the central.
| Voter group | GRN prim | ALP 2PP | Total votes | % of votes |
| South-West | 10.7 | 62.7 | 6,057 | 14.3 |
| North | 12.5 | 64.9 | 4,916 | 11.6 |
| Central | 15.9 | 66.3 | 3,655 | 8.6 |
| Pre-poll | 8.7 | 63.0 | 23,188 | 54.8 |
| Other votes | 12.2 | 63.0 | 4,487 | 10.6 |
Election results in Wendouree at the 2022 Victorian state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for Labor, the Liberal Party and the Greens.
This is another seat where the Liberals appear to be no longer cutting through in anymore. It’s worth noting if the anti-Labor swing is more aggressive in the country then things could get interesting.
Central Ballarat, where the population is more tree-changer and urbanised than the rural areas in the federal electorate. Yeah nothing to see here. Labor hold easily unlike Eureka which will be a battleground.
I don’t know that the urban/suburban areas of Ballarat are really ‘tree-changers’ to any greater extent than the surrounding rural areas in the Federal electorate – Buninyong to the south and the Hepburn towns (Creswick, Clunes etc) to the north are very much tree-changer and somewhat hippie-ish in character, Daylesford even more so.
Ballarat core includes some quite low socio-economic suburbs but what I think really strengthens it for Labor is the amount of teachers and workers at the hospitals as well as the administrative public service workers based there or commuting in to Melbourne. You do then have more typically rural areas closer to Geelong and towards Beaufort that are probably more liable to a swing away from Labor but at the state level these distinct areas are all split from each other (Hepburn between Ripon/Bendigo West, Ballarat suburbs between Wendouree/Eureka) and thus I wouldn’t necessarily say any one of these seats is more liable to a big or small swing relative to each other.