Electoral district of Wentworth

This article is about the New South Wales state electorate. For the Australian federal electorate, see Division of Wentworth. For other uses, see Wentworth (disambiguation).

Wentworth was an electoral district for the Legislative Assembly in the far south west of the Australian state of New South Wales and named after and including the town of Wentworth. It established in 1880 and partly replacing Lachlan. From 1885 until 1889 it elected two members. The population in Wentworth had grown significantly since the 1880 redistribution, especially as a result of the growth of mining at Broken Hill, with the electoral roll growing from 1,901 in 1880 to 5,617 in 1887. Under the formula for seats, Wentworth was due to return 3 members, however because of the large area covered by the district, in 1889 it was split into 3, Wentworth, Sturt and Wilcannia.^[1] Wentworth retained the eponymous town, along with the towns of Menindie and Pooncaira. Sturt contained the mining boom towns of Broken Hill, Silverton and Milparinka while Wilcannia was the only town in that district.

The district was abolished in 1904 due to the re-distribution of electorates following the 1903 New South Wales referendum, which required the number of members of the Legislative Assembly to be reduced from 125 to 90.^[2] It was replaced by a re-created district of The Murray along with parts of The Lachlan and the abolished district of Hay.^[3][4][5]

Members for Wentworth

Single-member (1880–1885)
Member		Party	Term
	William Brodribb	None	1880–1882
	Edward Quin	None	1882–1885
Two members (1885–1889)
Member		Party	Term	Member		Party	Term
	Edward Quin	None	1885–1887		William MacGregor	None	1885–1887
	Joseph Abbott	Protectionist	1887–1889			Ind. Free Trade	1887–1887
					Thomas Browne	Protectionist	1887–1889
Single-member (1889–1894)
Member		Party	Term
	(Sir) Joseph Abbott	Protectionist	1889–1891
		Independent	1891–1894
		Protectionist	1894–1901
	Robert Scobie	Labor	1901–1904

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Wentworth

1901 New South Wales state election: Wentworth ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert Scobie	649	63.3	+32.3
	Independent	Harry Harben	258	25.2
	Independent	Thomas Boynton	85	8.3
	Independent Liberal	Alexander Cameron	34	3.3
Total formal votes			1,026	99.1	+0.3
Informal votes			9	0.9	−0.3
Turnout			1,035	60.7	+17.0
	Labour gain from Progressive

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1901 New South Wales state election § Wentworth.[edit]

The sitting member was Sir Joseph Abbott (Protectionist) who did not contest the election.