Division of Werriwa

The Division of Werriwa is a Federal Electoral Division for the Australian House of Representatives in the state of New South Wales. 

The name Werriwa is the local Aboriginal name for Lake George. The lake was in the division when the boundaries were drawn in 1900. The division was one of the original 75 divisions for Australia's first federal election in 1901. It covered a large rural area from the south west of Sydney to the northern part of what is now the ACT. 

Over the years, the population around Sydney increased. The boundaries were redrawn and Werriwa became smaller in area. By 1913 Lake George was no longer included in the Division. Werriwa become a south-western Sydney suburban electorate over 150 km away from Lake George. It has kept the name of Werriwa, because it is an original Federation electorate. The Australian Electoral Commission tries to keep the names of original Federation electorates. 

Werriwa now covers the suburbs of Austral, Bardia, Bow Bowing, Casula, Claymore, Denham Court, Edmondson Park, Eschol Park, Glenfield, Horningsea Park, Hoxton Park, Ingleburn, Leppington, Lurnea, Macquarie Fields, Minto, Minto Heights, Prestons, Raby, St Andrews and Varroville and parts of Liverpool, Leumeah and West Hoxton.

Members

MemberPartyTerm  Alfred Conroy Free Trade 1901–1906  David Hall Labor 1906–1912  Benjamin Bennett Labor 1912–1913  Alfred Conroy Commonwealth Liberal 1913–1914 John Lynch Labor 1914–1916  National Labor 1916–1917  Nationalist 1917–1918 Hubert Lazzarini Labor 1919-1931  Lang Labor 1931–1931  Walter McNicoll Country 1931–1934 Hubert Lazzarini Lang Labor 1934–1936  Labor 1936–1952  Gough Whitlam Labor 1952–1978  John Kerin Labor 1978–1994  Mark Latham Labor 1994–2005  Chris Hayes Labor 2005–2010  Laurie Ferguson Labor 2010–2016  Anne Stanley Labor 2016–present 
It is a very safe seat for the Australian Labor Party (ALP), which has held it without a break since 1934.

Werriwa was the electorate (1952–78) of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. From 1994 to 2005 the Werriwa was held by one of Whitlam's former aides, Mark Latham. Latham was the leader of the ALP and Leader of the Opposition from 2003–2005. 

In a by-election in March 2005, Labor's Chris Hayes was elected with over 55% of the vote. There were 16 other candidates but none got more than 8% of the vote.

Election results

References

Division of Werriwa – Australian Electoral Commission

Other websites
 Laurie Ferguson's website

Category:Electoral divisions of New South Wales
Category:1901 establishments in Australia