Torrens
South Australia—House of Assembly
Map of Adelaide, South Australia with electoral district of Torrens highlighted
Electoral district of Torrens (green) in the Greater Adelaide area
StateSouth Australia
Dates current1902–1915,
1938–1985,
1993–present
MPDana Wortley
PartyAustralian Labor Party (SA)
NamesakeRobert Torrens
Electors25,110 (2018)
Area16.97 km2 (6.6 sq mi)
DemographicMetropolitan
Coordinates34°51′50″S 138°39′35″E / 34.86389°S 138.65972°E / -34.86389; 138.65972
Electorates around Torrens:
Port Adelaide Florey Newland
Enfield Torrens Morialta
Adelaide Dunstan Hartley
Footnotes
Electoral District map[1]

Torrens is a single-member electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. Located along the River Torrens, it is named after Sir Robert Richard Torrens, a 19th-century Premier of South Australia noted for being the founder of the "Torrens title" land registration system.[2] Torrens is an 18.8 square kilometres (7.3 sq mi) suburban electorate in Adelaide's north-east. It includes the suburbs of Gilles Plains, Greenacres, Hampstead Gardens, Hillcrest, Holden Hill, Klemzig, Manningham, Oakden, Vale Park, Valley View and Windsor Gardens.

Torrens has had three incarnations as a South Australian House of Assembly electoral district.

It was first created for the 1902 election as a five-seat multi-member district stretching from the north-eastern suburbs through the eastern and southern suburbs to the south-western suburbs; together with the three-member Port Adelaide (covering the north-western and western suburbs) and the four-member Adelaide (covering central Adelaide and the inner-northern suburbs), the three districts with a total of 12-members covered the whole of the metropolitan area in the 42 member house.[3] Torrens was abolished and absorbed into the new seats of East Torrens and Sturt at the 1915 election.[4]

Torrens existed as a marginal to fairly safe Liberal and Country League/Liberal single-member seat under the Playmander system from the 1938 election, lasting until the 1985 election, though it was won once by Labor at the 1944 election. Torrens was one of just three metropolitan seats (with Burnside and Mitcham) won by the Liberal and Country League in 1965 and 1968.

Torrens was recreated in its current state for the 1993 election, based on much of the abolished seats of Gilles and Todd, as a nominally marginal Labor seat, but was won for the Liberal Joe Tiernan. Tiernan died while in office in 1994, and Robyn Geraghty reclaimed the seat for Labor at the Torrens by-election with an 8.6 percent swing. Former Senator Dana Wortley won the seat for Labor at the 2014 election and has retained it through the 2018 election and subsequent 2022 election.

Members for Torrens

First incarnation (1902–1915, 5 members)
Term Member Party Member Party Member Party Member Party Member Party Term
1902–1905   John Darling Jr. National League   John Jenkins   George Soward National League   Thomas Price Labor   Frederick Coneybeer Labor 1902–1905
1905–1910   Crawford Vaughan Labor   George Dankel Labor   Thomas Smeaton Labor 1905–1910
1910–1912   Thomas Ryan United Labor 1910–1912
1912–1915   Herbert Hudd Liberal Union   Herbert Angas Parsons Liberal Union 1912–1915
Second incarnation (1938–1985, single-member)
Member Party Term
  Shirley Jeffries Liberal and Country 1938–1944
  Herbert Baldock Labor 1944–1947
  Shirley Jeffries Liberal and Country 1947–1953
  John Travers Liberal and Country 1953–1956
  John Coumbe Liberal and Country 1956–1974
  Liberal 1974–1977
  Michael Wilson Liberal 1977–1985
Third incarnation (1993–present, single-member)
Member Party Term
  Joe Tiernan Liberal 1993–1994
  Robyn Geraghty Labor 1994–2014
  Dana Wortley Labor 2014–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Torrens
2022 South Australian state election: Torrens
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labor Dana Wortley 11,732 48.6 +5.3
Liberal Ursula Henderson 8,114 33.6 −3.2
Greens Lazaras Panayiotou 2,559 10.6 +3.3
Family First Mervin Joshua 1,737 7.2 +7.2
Total formal votes 24,142 96.9
Informal votes 772 3.1
Turnout 24,914 88.4
Two-party-preferred result
Labor Dana Wortley 14,475 60.0 +4.3
Liberal Ursula Henderson 9,667 40.0 −4.3
Labor hold Swing +4.3

Notes

  1. ^ Electoral District of Torrens (Map). Electoral Commission of South Australia. 2018. Retrieved 1 April 2018.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ "Torrens". Electoral Commission SA. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  3. ^ "Parliamentary Electorates". The Adelaide Chronicle. 5 April 1902. p. 33 – via Trove.
  4. ^ "Statistical Record of the Legislature 1836 to 2009" (PDF). Parliament of South Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 March 2019. Retrieved 5 December 2013.

References

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