Electoral district of Bathurst

This article is about the New South Wales state electoral district. For the former New Brunswick electoral district, see Bathurst (electoral district).

Bathurst is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is represented by Paul Toole of the Nationals.

Bathurst New South Wales—Legislative Assembly
Interactive map of district boundaries from the 2023 state election
State	New South Wales
Dates current	1859–present
MP	Paul Toole
Party	National
Namesake	Bathurst, New South Wales
Electors	59,476 (2023)
Area	14,992.77 km2 (5,788.7 sq mi)
Demographic	Provincial and rural
Electorates around Bathurst: Dubbo Upper Hunter Upper Hunter Orange Bathurst Hawkesbury Blue Mountains Cootamundra Goulburn Wollondilly

Bathurst is a regional electorate that encompasses the entirety of the local government areas of Bathurst Region, the City of Lithgow, Blayney Shire, Oberon Shire plus the southern part of Mid-Western Regional Council (including Rylstone, Kandos and Ilford).^[1][2][3]

History

Bathurst was created in 1859, partly replacing Western Boroughs. Between 1920 and 1927, it absorbed parts of Hartley and Orange and elected three members under proportional representation. In 1927 Bathurst, Hartley and Orange were recreated as single-member electorates. It was held by the Labor party for 20 years until the Coalition's landslide win in 2011, where the Nationals candidate Paul Toole recorded a swing of 36.7%, the largest in state history. Of particular note was the suburb of Eglinton, where labour support plummeted from 854 of 1,690 (50.5%) to 180 of 1,690 (10.7%) first preference votes; a precipitous decline of 79%.^[4] This trend was somewhat reversed in 2015, with Toole being re-elected by a margin of around 15,000 votes, a majority of almost two-thirds of the vote, but still down from the approximate 20,000 margin from 2011.

Members for Bathurst

(1859–1920, 1 member)
Member		Party	Term
	John Findlater Clements [5]	None	1859–1860
	James Hart [6]	None	1860–1864
	James Kemp [7]	None	1864–1866
	William Suttor, Sr. [8]	None	1866–1872
	Edward Combes [9]	None	1872–1874
	Francis Suttor [10]	None	1875–1887
	William Cortis [11]	Free Trade	1887–1889
	William Paul [12]	Free Trade	1889–1891
	Francis Suttor [10]	Protectionist	1891–1894
	Sydney Smith [13]	Free Trade	1894–1898
	Francis Suttor [10]	Protectionist	1898–1900
	William Young [14]	Protectionist	1900–1901
		Progressive	1901–1907
	John Miller [15]	Liberal Reform	1907–1913
	Ernest Durack [16]	Labor	1913–1917
	Valentine Johnston [17]	Labor	1917–1920
(1920–1927, 3 members)
Member		Party	Term	Member		Party	Term	Member		Party	Term
	Valentine Johnston [17]	Labor	1920–1922		James Dooley [18]	Labor	1920–1927		John Fitzpatrick [19]	Nationalist	1920–1927
	Charles Rosenthal [20]	Nationalist	1922–1925
	Gus Kelly [21]	Labor	1925–1927
(1927–present, 1 member)
Member		Party	Term
	Gus Kelly [21]	Labor	1927–1932
	Gordon Wilkins [22]	Country	1932–1935
	Gus Kelly [21]	Labor	1935–1967
	Clive Osborne [23]	Country	1967–1981
	Mick Clough [24]	Labor	1981–1988
	David Berry [25]	Liberal	1988–1991
	Mick Clough [24]	Labor	1991–1999
	Gerard Martin [26]	Labor	1999–2011
	Paul Toole [27]	National	2011–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Bathurst

2023 New South Wales state election: Bathurst^[28][29]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	Paul Toole	29,873	57.0	+1.9
	Labor	Cameron Shaw	8,442	16.1	−4.4
	Shooters, Fishers, Farmers	Craig Sinclair	3,850	7.3	−7.4
	Greens	Kay Nankervis	3,595	6.9	+1.3
	Independent	Martin Ticehurst	3,449	6.6	+6.6
	Legalise Cannabis	Antony Zbik	1,472	2.8	+2.8
	Liberal Democrats	Burchell Wilson	1,092	2.1	+2.1
	Sustainable Australia	Michael Begg	626	1.2	−1.4
Total formal votes			52,399	97.4	+0.4
Informal votes			1,400	2.6	−0.4
Turnout			53,799	90.5	−1.1
Two-party-preferred result
	National	Paul Toole	32,850	73.6	+5.7
	Labor	Cameron Shaw	11,801	26.4	−5.7
	National hold		Swing	+5.7

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2023 New South Wales state election (Legislative Assembly) § Bathurst.[edit]