Electoral district of Bellarine

Bellarine Victoria—Legislative Assembly
Location of Bellarine (dark green) in Victoria
State	Victoria
Dates current	1967–1976, 1985–present
MP	Lisa Neville
Party	Australian Labor Party
Electors	42,541 (2014)
Area	367 km^2 (141.7 sq mi)
Demographic	Urbanised Rural

The Electoral district of Bellarine is an electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. It covers an area of 367 square kilometres (142 sq mi) stretching from the Bellarine Peninsula to the outer eastern suburbs of Geelong. It includes the towns of Barwon Heads, Clifton Springs, Drysdale, Indented Head, Ocean Grove, Point Lonsdale, Portarlington and Queenscliff and the Geelong suburbs of Leopold and Moolap. It lies within the Western Victoria Region of the upper house, the Legislative Council.^[1]

The seat was first created in a redistribution prior to the 1967 election but was abolished and replaced by Geelong East and South Barwon in 1976. It was revived prior to the 1985 election after Geelong East was itself abolished and population increases in South Barwon moved that electorate westwards.

It has traditionally been a marginal seat. Graham Ernst of the Labor Party won the seat in the 1985 and 1988 elections but was defeated at the 1992 election by the Liberal Party's Garry Spry who held the seat until his retirement in 2002. At the election in November of that year it was one of many seats to fall to the Labor Party.

Lisa Neville is the current member. She holds the seat with a margin of 1.37%.

Members for Bellarine

First incarnation (1967-1976)
Member		Party	Term
	Aurel Smith	Liberal	1967–1976

Second incarnation (1985–present)
	Graham Ernst	Labor	1985–1992
	Garry Spry	Liberal	1992–2002
	Lisa Neville	Labor	2002–present

Election results

Victorian state election, 2014: Bellarine

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labor	Lisa Neville	16,818	43.6	+6.1
	Liberal	Ron Nelson	15,678	40.6	−6.0
	Greens	Brenton Peake	3,639	9.4	+0.6
	Sex Party	Rhiannon Hunter	631	1.6	+1.6
	Family First	Robert Keenan	572	1.5	−0.5
	Shooters and Fishers	Joshua Williams	490	1.3	+1.3
	Country Alliance	John Irvine	436	1.1	−0.3
	Rise Up Australia	Christopher Dawson	178	0.5	+0.5
	Independent	Gus Kacinskas	169	0.4	+0.4
Total formal votes			38,611	95.2	−0.0
Informal votes			1,964	4.8	+0.0
Turnout			40,575	95.4	+5.8
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Lisa Neville	21,174	54.8	+7.3
	Liberal	Ron Nelson	17,437	45.2	−7.3
	Labor gain from Liberal		Swing	+7.3

References

1. "Bellarine District profile". Victorian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 6 December 2014.

External links

• Electorate profile: Bellarine District, Victorian Electoral Commission