Division of Moore - History

History

Due to significant demographic change, the seat's boundaries and constituency has evolved considerably since its establishment at the 11 May 1949 redistribution, when it was for the most part a rural seat covering parts of the Wheatbelt to the north and east of Perth, the state capital, along the Indian Ocean coast - a similar region to that presently covered by the state seat of Moore. At its first election, the 1949 election, it was won by the Country Party. The seat maintained its rural character over the years as construction of the northern suburbs from the 1960s onwards forced its southern boundary just beyond the urban fringe of Perth, but the 28 February 1980 redistribution moved much of the rural hinterland into the new seat of O'Connor, and the creation of Cowan four years later in the suburbs north of Reid Highway to Whitfords Avenue saw Moore transformed into a safe Labor seat with a population centred on Midland, but still including the Chittering, Gingin and Dandaragan local government areas to the north.

The creation of Pearce at the 31 March 1989 redistribution pushed Moore into the now heavily urban and relatively affluent coastal areas north of Reid Highway, removing areas like Midland and Beechboro completely and making it a reasonably safe Liberal seat. The seat has been held by the Liberal Party ever since, apart from the period between the 1996 and 1998 federal elections when the disendorsed former member Paul Filing held it as an Independent.