The Division of Adelaide is an Australian electoral division in South Australia and is named for the city of Adelaide, South Australia's capital.
At the 2016 federal election, the electorate covered 76 km², is centered on the Adelaide city centre and spanning from Grand Junction Road in the north to Cross Road in the south and from Portrush Road in the east to Marion and Holbrooks Road in the west, taking in suburbs including Ashford, Enfield, Goodwood, Kent Town, Keswick, Kilburn, Mansfield Park, Maylands, Northgate, Norwood, Parkside, Prospect, Rose Park, St Peters, Toorak Gardens, Torrensville, Thebarton, Unley and Walkerville.
Geography
Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australian Electoral Commission. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.
History
thumb|left|The city of [[Adelaide, the division's namesake (pictured July 2010)]]
The division of Adelaide was one of seven single-member seats established when the seven-member statewide Division of South Australia was abolished following the inaugural 1901 election. For the first 40 years after Federation, it was one of the few Federation seats in the state that regularly changed hands between the Australian Labor Party and the conservative parties. Despite the bellwether-like swinging tendency, unusually the only time Adelaide was won by an incoming government was in 1931.
However, Labor held it for all but six years from 1943 to 1993, including a 23-year Labor hold during the Robert Menzies era. For most of the time from 1943 to 1987, it was a fairly safe Labor seat. Labor's hold on the seat loosened slightly in the late 1980s due to pro-Liberal demographic change, and it was briefly lost to the Liberals at a 1988 by-election, but regained in 1990.
As with the modern state electoral district of Adelaide, for most of its first century, the federal Division of Adelaide covered only the Adelaide city centre and a few nearby inner north suburbs up to Regency Road in Prospect.
Later years
A pre-1993 boundary redistribution pushed the seat to the south,
2018 redistribution and next election
Labor incumbent Kate Ellis announced in March 2017 that she would step down from the Labor shadow cabinet in the following months and would not re-contest her seat at the end of the parliamentary term. The 2018 South Australian federal redistribution saw the seat of Adelaide lose all of its inner-eastern suburbs and a couple of its southern suburbs, while gaining a long strip of western suburbs spanning the entire north-south length of the seat. These changes saw the Labor margin increase significantly from 4.7 percent to a notional 9.0 percent. In July 2018, Steve Georganas, the Labor member for neighbouring Hindmarsh, sought and won preselection for Adelaide at the 2019 election, yielding his former seat to fellow Labor MP Mark Butler, the member for abolished Port Adelaide.
2025 election landslide
At the 2025 election landslide, the Liberals were left seatless in the Adelaide metropolitan area for the first time since the 1946 election.
Members
{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center"
|-
! colspan=2 | Image
! Member
! Party
! Term
! Notes
|-
|-
| |
| 100px
| Charles Kingston<br />
| Protectionist
| nowrap | 16 December 1903 –<br/>11 May 1908
| Previously held the Division of South Australia. Died in office
|-
| |
| 100px
| Ernest Roberts<br />
| rowspan="2" | Labor
| nowrap | 13 June 1908 –<br/>2 December 1913
| Previously held the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Gladstone. Served as minister under Fisher. Died in office
|-
| |
| 100px
| George Edwin Yates<br />
| nowrap | 10 January 1914 –<br/>13 December 1919
| Lost seat
|-
| |
| 100px
| Reginald Blundell<br />
| Nationalist
| nowrap | 13 December 1919 –<br/>16 December 1922
| Previously held the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Adelaide. Lost seat
|-
| |
| 100px
| George Edwin Yates<br />
| Labor
| nowrap | 16 December 1922 –<br/>19 December 1931
| Lost seat
|-
| |
| 100px
| Fred Stacey<br />
| United Australia
| nowrap | 19 December 1931 –<br/>21 August 1943
| Lost seat
|-
| |
| rowspan=3 | 100px
| rowspan=3 | Cyril Chambers<br />
| Labor
| nowrap | 21 August 1943 –<br/>19 September 1957
| rowspan=3 | Served as minister under Chifley. Retired
|-
| |
| nowrap | Independent
| nowrap | 19 September 1957 –<br/>16 June 1958
|-
| |
| rowspan="2" | Labor
| nowrap | 16 June 1958 –<br/>14 October 1958
|-
| |
| 100px
| Joe Sexton<br />
| nowrap | 22 November 1958 –<br/>26 November 1966
| Lost seat
|-
| |
| 100px
| Andrew Jones<br />
| Liberal
| nowrap | 26 November 1966 –<br/>25 October 1969
| Lost seat
|-
| |
| 100px
| Chris Hurford<br />
| Labor
| nowrap | 25 October 1969 –<br/>31 December 1987
| Served as minister under Hawke. Resigned to become Australian Consul-General in New York
|-
| |
| 100px
| Mike Pratt<br />
| Liberal
| nowrap | 6 February 1988 –<br/>24 March 1990
| Lost seat
|-
| |
| 100px
| Bob Catley<br />
| Labor
| nowrap | 24 March 1990 –<br/>13 March 1993
| Lost seat
|-
| |
| 100px
| Trish Worth<br />
| Liberal
| nowrap | 13 March 1993 –<br/>9 October 2004
| Lost seat
|-
| |
| 100px
| Kate Ellis<br />
| rowspan="2" | Labor
| nowrap | 9 October 2004 –<br/>11 April 2019
| Served as minister under Rudd and Gillard. Retired
|-
| |
| 100px
| Steve Georganas<br />
| nowrap | 18 May 2019 –<br/>present
| Previously held the Division of Hindmarsh. Incumbent
|}
Election results
References
External links
- SA boundary map, 2001: AEC
- SA boundary map, 1984: Atlas SA