Electoral District of Frome

Electoral District Of Frome

Frome is an electoral district of the House of Assembly in the Australian state of South Australia. It is named after Edward Charles Frome, the third surveyor-general of South Australia. The electorate is based around the industrial city of Port Pirie and the agriculture areas of Clare and Gilbert Valleys. It covers a total of 6,889.7 km² and takes in the towns of Auburn, Clare, Crystal Brook, Gladstone, Laura, Mintaro, Penwortham, Port Broughton, Port Pirie, Snowtown, Tarlee and Riverton.

Frome has existed in three incarnations throughout the history of the House of Assembly: as a multi-member marginal electorate from 1884 to 1902, as a single member electorate in a multi member electoral system from 1938 to 1977, and as a marginal to moderately safe seat for the Liberal Party of Australia since 1993.

The first incarnation was, like the rest of the state, independent-held until the development of the party system until in the 1890s. The two seats were split evenly with a conservative and a liberal member from 1890 until the seat's abolition in 1902.

The second incarnation began in 1938 after the introduction of the Playmander. The electorate was dominated by the Labor-voting town of Port Pirie as a single member seat. The seat was won by Mick O'Halloran, who served as Opposition Leader from 1949 until his death in 1960. After the end of the Playmander which saw all electorates hold approximately the same number of voters, Frome took in more rural areas around Port Pirie, and was lost by Labor to the Liberal and Country League, until the abolition of the seat in 1977.

The third incarnation saw the seat revived at the 1991 redistribution as a marginal seat, which took in Port Pirie and surrounding rural areas. It was first contested at the 1993 election and was won by Liberal candidate Rob Kerin.

Kerin chose to retire in November 2008, which triggered a January 2009 Frome by-election. The seat was won by independent Geoff Brock after a very close preference contest in which Brock finish second place by 30 votes, with the Liberals in front and Labor coming third. Brock received sufficient preferences from the eliminated Labor candidate to prevail over the Liberal candidate by over 600 votes, or 51.7 percent of the two-candidate preferred vote. He increased his primary and two-candidate vote significantly at the 2010 election, and the Labor candidate notably won the two-party preferred vote against the Liberal candidate by 30 votes.