South Metropolitan Province

The South Metropolitan Province was a two-member electoral province of the Western Australian Legislative Council, located in metropolitan Perth. It was one of several metropolitan seats created following the enactment of the Constitution Acts Amendment Act (No.2) 1963, and became effective on 22 May 1965. The province was very safe for the Labor Party, which held most or all of the component Assembly seats.

In 1989, the province was abolished by the Acts Amendment (Electoral Reform) Act 1987, and with two others became part of the South Metropolitan Region under the new proportional voting system.

Geography

The province was made up of several complete Legislative Assembly districts, which changed at each distribution.

Redistribution	Period	Electoral districts	Electors	% of State
1963–64	22 May 1965 – 22 May 1968	Cockburn, East Melville, Fremantle, Melville	41,082	11.09
1966	22 May 1968 – 22 May 1974		46,073	11.14
1972	22 May 1974 – 22 May 1977		63,251	11.48
1976	22 May 1977 – 22 May 1983		63,455	10.02
1982	22 May 1983 – 22 May 1989	Cockburn, Fremantle, Melville, Rockingham	65,508	9.22

Representation

Members

Member 1	Party		Term		Member 2	Party		Term
Ron Thompson		Labor	1965–1980		Frederick Lavery		Labor	1965–1971
					Des Dans		Labor	1971–1989
Howard Olney[1]		Labor	1980–1981
Garry Kelly		Labor	1982–1989

¹ On 16 December 1981, Labor member Howard Olney resigned in order to be appointed to the Supreme Court of Western Australia. At the resulting by-election on 13 March 1982, Labor candidate Garry Kelly was elected.

References

• Black, David (1991). Legislative Council of Western Australia : membership register, electoral law and statistics, 1890-1989. Perth: Parliamentary History Project. ISBN 0-7309-3641-4.