Electoral district of Eyre

This article is about the Western Australian state electorate. For the historical South Australian state electorate, see Electoral district of Eyre (South Australia).

Eyre Western Australia—Legislative Assembly
State	Western Australia
Dates current	1950–1962; 1989–2005; 2008–present
MP	Graham Jacobs
Party	Liberal
Namesake	Edward John Eyre
Area	292,240 km2 (112,834.5 sq mi)
Demographic	Mining and Pastoral

Eyre is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia.

The district covers large tracts of the rural south-east of Western Australia. It includes the following local government councils: Shire of Coolgardie, Shire of Dundas, Shire of Esperance, Shire of Ravensthorpe, Shire of Yilgarn, as well as a large part of the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. The district includes the towns of Bodallin, Boulder, Coolgardie, Dundas, Esperance, Eucla, Kambalda, Marvel Loch, Ravensthorpe and Southern Cross.

Politically, the district appears to be a safe Liberal seat. Based on the results of the 2005 state election, the newly drawn electorate was created with a Liberal Party majority of 64.9% to 34.1% versus the Labor Party, according to one analysis.

History

Eyre was first created for the 1950 election and abolished ahead of the 1962 election. Labor MP Emil Nulsen, who had previously held the seat of Kanowna, was the district's only member over the period, and was unopposed on two occasions.

Eyre was again created for the 1989 election and abolished ahead of the 2005 state election. The district ultimately included the Shires of Coolgardie, Dundas, Laverton, Leonora, Menzies and Yilgarn, as well as the Boulder district and non-metropolitan components of the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. It was held at all times by the Labor Party, and historically, only Southern Cross returned a consistent majority for the Liberal Party. The district was largely replaced by Murchison-Eyre.

An electorate named Eyre was created for a third time, on this occasion for the 2008 election. The new district was drawn from parts of Murchison-Eyre and Roe – both of which were abolished – as well as a small part of Kalgoorlie. Eyre is centred further south and west than its previous incarnations, incorporating large parts of the former Roe district – which was always a non-Labor seat – in particular, the towns of Esperance and Ravensthorpe. For this reason, the new seat of Eyre is much less favourable to Labor than its predecessors. The new district's first and current member is Liberal MP Graham Jacobs, who was previously the member for Roe.

Members for Eyre

First incarnation (1950–1962)
Member		Party	Term
	Emil Nulsen	Labor	1950–1962
Second incarnation (1989–2005)
Member		Party	Term
	Julian Grill	Labor	1989–2001
	John Bowler	Labor	2001–2005
Third incarnation (2008–present)
	Graham Jacobs	Liberal	2008–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Eyre

Western Australian state election, 2013: Eyre

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Graham Jacobs	5,870	41.1	–4.8
	WA Nationals	Colin De Grussa	5,258	36.8	+9.9
	Labor	Greg Smith	2,082	14.6	–4.7
	Greens	Giorgia Johnson	715	5.0	–2.2
	Christians	Brett Hilton	366	2.6	+2.6
Total formal votes			14,291	94.6	–0.3
Informal votes			816	5.4	+0.3
Turnout			15,107	87.3
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal	Graham Jacobs	10,474	73.3	+4.0
	Labor	Greg Smith	3,817	26.7	–4.0
Two-candidate-preferred result
	Liberal	Graham Jacobs	7,203	50.4	–3.0
	WA Nationals	Colin De Grussa	7,078	49.6	+3.0
	Liberal hold		Swing	–3.0