Electoral District of Victoria Park - History

History

Victoria Park was created at the 1929 redistribution, at which five new metropolitan electorates were created to replace former Goldfields seats in Parliament. The seat is considered a safe Australian Labor Party seat, and has been held by the party between 1930 and 1945, and since the 1953 state election, with independent William Read holding the seat in the interim. From 1961 until 1986 it was held by Ron Davies who served as Opposition Leader from 1978 until 1981 when he was replaced by Brian Burke, who mounted a successful campaign for the 1983 election. Ron Davies left Parliament in 1986 after his appointment as Agent-General of Western Australia in London, and at the resulting by-election on 7 June 1986, Dr Geoff Gallop, a lecturer at Murdoch University, was elected. In 1996, he followed his predecessor into the role of Opposition Leader, and just over four years later, became Premier after Labor's victory at the 2001 election. He retired from politics and as Premier on 16 January 2006 in order to aid his recovery from depression, and that "in the interests of my health and my family, I've decided to rethink my career." Labor's Ben Wyatt won the resulting by-election, with a 5% swing to the opposition Liberal candidate.

Of the five times the seat has changed members, four of them have occurred at by-elections (all except Hugh Andrew's win at the 1953 election), two of which have been caused by the death of the incumbent in office (Howard Raphael and Hugh Andrew). No incumbent member has ever been defeated.