Electoral Division of Drysdale

Electoral Division Of Drysdale

Drysdale is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1997, and is named after Fred Drysdale, a former member of the Legislative Council. It covers 12 km², encompassing north-western suburban areas of Palmerston including the CBD and the suburbs of Driver, Durack, Gray and Yarrawonga. There were 5,178 people enrolled within the electorate as of August 2012.

For the first eight years of its life, Drysdale was considered to be a safe seat for the Country Liberal Party, with their candidate Stephen Dunham easily winning the seat at the 1997 election and holding it at the 2001 election.

Most commentators predicted that the CLP's dominance in Drysdale would continue at the 2005 election, although the Australian Labor Party were running a high profile candidate, former AFL Northern Territory general manager Chris Natt. However, there was a significant swing to the ALP across the territory on election day, and Dunham was ultimately defeated, along with several other CLP sitting members. The final result took several days to be decided. In 2008, Ross Bohlin regained the seat for the CLP, however he failed to gain party preselection in 2012 and contested the election as an independent candidate. He was defeated by the CLP's endorsed candidate, Lia Finocchiaro.