Division of Fremantle

Fremantle Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Fremantle in Western Australia, as of the 2021 redistribution.
Created	1901
MP	Josh Wilson
Party	Labor
Namesake	Fremantle
Electors	105,383 (2019)
Area	196 km2 (75.7 sq mi)
Demographic	Inner Metropolitan

The Division of Fremantle is an electoral division of the Australian House of Representatives in Western Australia.

History[]

The city of Fremantle, the division's namesake

The division was created at Federation in 1900 and was one of the original 65 divisions contested at the first federal election. It is named for the city of Fremantle, which in turn is named for Captain Charles Fremantle, captain of HMS Challenger, who took formal possession of the west coast of New Holland in the name of His Majesty the King. This action cleared the way for the arrival of Captain James Stirling and the first party of Swan River Colony settlers a few weeks later.^[1]

The Division is located in the southern suburbs of Perth. As at the 2016 election, it includes:

• the City of Fremantle;
• the Town of East Fremantle;
• Rottnest Island;
• the vast majority of the City of Cockburn (except for a small section of Leeming contained in the city); and
• parts of the City of Melville (namely Palmyra, part of Kardinya and Ken Hurst Park in Leeming).^[2]

As originally drawn, the Division of Fremantle included nearly all of Perth's south-of-the-river suburbs, plus the western suburbs south from Mt Claremont and Nedlands.^[3] On these boundaries, the seat frequently changed hands between the Australian Labor Party and the conservative parties for the first three decades of its existence. However, Labor has held the seat without interruption since 1934, and for all but one term since 1928. The 1949 expansion of Parliament made Fremantle even safer for Labor by shifting most of its northern portion to the newly created Division of Curtin. Since then, it has usually been one of the safest Labor seats in Australia. It was nearly lost in the landslides of 1975 and 1977, but since the 1980 redistribution when the suburbs of Mosman Park, Peppermint Grove and Cottesloe were transferred to the Division of Curtin,^[4] the Liberals have only twice garnered 45 percent of the two-party vote, in 1996 and 2013.

Since World War II, Fremantle has been held by a succession of senior Labor figures. The seat's best-known member was John Curtin, who was Prime Minister of Australia from 1941 to 1945. Other high-profile members were Kim Beazley Sr., a minister in the Whitlam Government; John Dawkins, a minister in the Hawke and Keating Governments; and Carmen Lawrence, the former Premier of Western Australia and a minister in the Keating Government. Lawrence retired at the 2007 election. She was succeeded by Melissa Parke, a former United Nations lawyer and a minister in the second Rudd Government.

Members[]

	Image	Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Elias Solomon (1839–1909)	Free Trade	29 March 1901 – 16 December 1903	Previously held the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of South Fremantle. Lost seat
		William Carpenter (1863–1930)	Labour	16 December 1903 – 12 December 1906	Previously held the South Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Encounter Bay. Lost seat. Later elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Fremantle in 1911
		William Hedges (1856–1935)	Western Australian	12 December 1906 – 26 May 1909	Lost seat
			Commonwealth Liberal	26 May 1909 – 31 May 1913
		Reginald Burchell (1883–1955)	Labor	31 May 1913 – 14 November 1916	Served as Chief Government Whip in the House under Hughes. Retired
			National Labor	14 November 1916 – 17 February 1917
			Nationalist	17 February 1917 – 6 November 1922
		William Watson (1864–1938)	Independent	16 December 1922 – 9 October 1928	Retired
		John Curtin (1885–1945)	Labor	17 November 1928 – 19 December 1931	Lost seat
		William Watson (1864–1938)	United Australia	19 December 1931 – 7 August 1934	Retired
		John Curtin (1885–1945)	Labor	15 September 1934 – 5 July 1945	Served as Opposition Leader from 1935 to 1941. Served as Prime Minister from 1941 to 1945. Died in office
		Kim Beazley (1917–2007)	Labor	18 August 1945 – 10 November 1977	Served as minister under Whitlam. Retired
		John Dawkins (1947–)	Labor	10 December 1977 – 4 February 1994	Previously held the Division of Tangney. Served as minister under Hawke and Keating. Resigned in order to retire from politics
		Dr Carmen Lawrence (1948–)	Labor	12 March 1994 – 17 October 2007	Former Premier of Western Australia, previously held the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Glendalough. Served as minister under Keating. Retired
		Melissa Parke (1966–)	Labor	24 November 2007 – 9 May 2016	Served as minister under Rudd. Retired
		Josh Wilson (1972–)	Labor	2 July 2016 – 9 May 2018	Resigned and re-elected during the parliamentary eligibility crisis. Incumbent
				28 July 2018 – present

Election results[]

References[]

External links[]

• Division of Fremantle - Australian Electoral Commission

Coordinates: 32°06′11″S 115°47′24″E / 32.103°S 115.790°E / -32.103; 115.790