Electoral district of South Barwon

South Barwon is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Victoria.[1] Located in a mixed urban and rural area south of the Barwon River, it covers an area of 621 km², including the Geelong suburbs of Belmont and Grovedale, Waurn Ponds and part of Highton, the coastal centre of Torquay and the rural towns of Barrabool, Bellbrae, Connewarre, Gnarwarre, Modewarre, Moriac and Mount Moriac. The electorate had a population of 52,241 at the 2001 census.

South Barwon
Victoria—Legislative Assembly
Location of South Barwon (dark green) in Victoria
StateVictoria
Created1976
MPDarren Cheeseman
PartyLabor Party
Electors54,245 (2018)
Area361 km2 (139.4 sq mi)
DemographicUrbanised rural
Electorates around South Barwon:
Polwarth Geelong Geelong
Polwarth South Barwon Bellarine
Bass Strait Bass Strait Bass Strait

South Barwon was created in 1976 as a predominantly rural seat which was considered safe for the conservative Liberal Party. It was won by Liberal Aurel Smith, formerly the member for Bellarine, upon its inception, and retained for the party by Harley Dickinson upon Smith's retirement in 1982. Dickinson held the seat until 1992, when he quit the party and attempted to retain the seat as an independent, but lost to endorsed Liberal candidate and former television newsreader Alister Paterson. The seat underwent significant demographic change during Paterson's tenure as successive redistributions pushed it further into Geelong. Major population growth in the traditionally Labor-voting areas of Torquay, Barwon Heads and southern Geelong, caused the seat to become progressively less safe for the Liberal Party. These changes came to a head at the 2002 election, when the Labor Party nominated former Geelong mayor Michael Crutchfield as its candidate, and amidst a statewide landslide victory, he succeeded in taking South Barwon for the first time. Crutchfield was re-elected in 2006, but lost in 2010 to local councillor and Liberal candidate Andrew Katos. Katos was re-elected in 2014 but was defeated by former federal MP Darren Cheeseman in 2018. Katos re-contested South Barwon in 2022 in an attempt to win back his former seat, however Cheeseman easily retained the seat with 59.8% of the two-party-preferred vote, on the back of a 6.8% swing towards Labor. This was the strongest result for Labor in the seat’s history.

Members for South Barwon
Member Party Term
  Aurel Smith Liberal 1976–1982
  Harley Dickinson Liberal 1982–1992
  Independent 1992–1992
  Alister Paterson Liberal 1992–2002
  Michael Crutchfield Labor 2002–2010
  Andrew Katos Liberal 2010–2018
  Darren Cheeseman Labor 2018–present

Election results
Main article: Electoral results for the district of South Barwon
This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2022 Victorian state election (Legislative Assembly) § South Barwon.[edit]
2022 Victorian state election: South Barwon[2][3][4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labor Darren Cheeseman 19,969 44.2 +5.6
Liberal Andrew Katos 14,516 32.1 −6.5
Greens Genevieve Frances Dawson-Scott 5,719 12.6 +4.2
Family First Alan Barron 1,338 3.0 +3.0
Democratic Labour Leone Bates 1,099 2.4 −0.6
Animal Justice Naomi Adams 1,076 2.4 −0.7
Justice Jeynelle Marie Dean 891 2.0 +2.0
Freedom Simone Tomlinson 576 1.3 +1.3
Total formal votes 45,184 96.5 +1.0
Informal votes 1,637 3.5 −1.0
Turnout 46,821 90.8 +1.9
Two-party-preferred result
Labor Darren Cheeseman 27,020 59.8 +6.8
Liberal Andrew Katos 18,164 40.2 −6.8
Labor hold Swing+6.8

References
  1. "Re-Member (Former Members)". State Government of Victoria. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
  2. Green, Antony (11 January 2023). "VIC22 – 2-Party Preferred Results and Swings by District". Antony Green's Election Blog. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  3. VIC 2021 Final Redistribution, ABC News. [Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  4. South Barwon District results, Victorian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 1 December 2022.


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