Electoral district of Darling Range

Darling Range Western Australia—Legislative Assembly
Location of Darling Range (dark green) in the Perth metropolitan area
State	Western Australia
Dates current	1950–1974; 1977–present
MP	Hugh Jones
Party	Labor
Namesake	Darling Range
Electors	31,150 (2021)
Area	1,395 km2 (538.6 sq mi)
Demographic	Metropolitan
Coordinates	32.22°S 116.03°E / -32.22; 116.03
Electorates around Darling Range: Southern River Kalamunda Central Wheatbelt Kwinana Baldivis Darling Range Central Wheatbelt Warnbro Murray-Wellington Central Wheatbelt

Darling Range is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia.

The district is based to the east and south-east of Perth.

Geography

Darling Range is situated in the outer east and south-east of Perth. It is a mixture of suburbia and hinterland, falling inside the Metropolitan Region Scheme and running along most of its southern and eastern boundary. The district covers all of the Shire of Serpentine-Jarrahdale as well as the less urbanised parts of the city of Armadale.

History

Darling Range was first created for the 1950 state election. The seat's first member was Country MP Ray Owen, who was previously the member for Swan. The district was abolished ahead of the 1974 state election. By this time its member was Liberal MP Ian Thompson, who went on to represent the new district of Kalamunda. Darling Range was recreated one term later for the 1977 state election.

The seat was radically redistributed ahead of the 2008 state election, with 15% of the voters in the redrawn district coming from its former configuration. Half of the district's voters—and indeed the vast majority of its territory—previously belonged to the abolished district of Serpentine-Jarrahdale, with the remainder coming from Armadale and Swan Hills. Thus, sitting Serpentine-Jarrahdale member, Liberal MP Tony Simpson became the new member for Darling Range at the 2008 election, whilst the former member for Darling Range, Liberal MP John Day, successfully contested the new seat of Kalamunda.

Simpson served as the MP for Darling Range until his defeat by Barry Urban at the 2017 state election. This result marked the first time that the Labor Party had ever won the seat. In May 2018, Urban resigned from parliament as the privileges committee recommended his expulsion over a series of false claims of his credentials. At the subsequent by-election former East Metropolitan MLC Alyssa Hayden recovered the seat for the Liberals. Hayden was defeated by Labor candidate Hugh Jones at the 2021 election, marking the second time Labor had won the seat.

Members for Darling Range

Darling Range (1950–1974)
Member		Party	Term
	Ray Owen	Country	1950–1962
	Ken Dunn	Liberal Country League	1962–1968
		Liberal	1968–1971
	Ian Thompson	Liberal	1971–1974
Darling Range (1977–present)
Member		Party	Term
	George Spriggs	Liberal	1977–1987
	Bob Greig	Liberal	1987–1989
	Ian Thompson	Liberal	1989–1990
		Independent	1990–1993
	John Day	Liberal	1993–2008
	Tony Simpson	Liberal	2008–2017
	Barry Urban	Labor	2017
		Independent	2017–2018
	Alyssa Hayden	Liberal	2018–2021
	Hugh Jones	Labor	2021–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Darling Range

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2021 Western Australian state election (Legislative Assembly) § Darling Range.[edit]

2021 Western Australian state election: Darling Range

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Hugh Jones	14,854	56.0	+14.2
	Liberal	Alyssa Hayden	7,494	28.3	−1.7
	Greens	Matthew Lacey	1,254	4.7	−2.9
	Christians	Eric Eikelboom	1,230	4.6	0.0
	One Nation	Anthony Fenech	524	2.0	−6.8
	No Mandatory Vaccination	Judith Congrene	406	1.5	+1.5
	Liberal Democrats	Matthew Thompson	335	1.3	+1.3
	Western Australia	Brett Clarke	187	0.7	+0.7
	Independent	Dean Strautins	157	0.6	+0.6
	WAxit	Alan Svilicic	65	0.2	−1.0
Total formal votes			26,506	96.4	+1.3
Informal votes			981	3.6	−1.3
Turnout			27,487	88.2	+1.0
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Hugh Jones	16,822	63.5	+7.5
	Liberal	Alyssa Hayden	9,668	36.5	−7.5
	Labor hold		Swing	+7.5

External links

• ABC election profiles: 2005 2008 2013 2017
• WAEC district maps: current boundaries, previous distributions