Electoral district of Essendon

The electoral district of Essendon is an electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. It was first created in 1904 after the abolition of the larger Essendon and Flemington electorate, and covers some of the north-western suburbs of Melbourne, including Essendon, Moonee Ponds and Ascot Vale.

Essendon Victoria—Legislative Assembly
Location of Essendon (dark green) in Greater Melbourne
State	Victoria
Dates current	1904–1955 1958–present
MP	Danny Pearson
Party	Labor Party
Namesake	Essendon
Electors	48,427 (2018)
Area	24 km2 (9.3 sq mi)
Demographic	Metropolitan
Electorates around Essendon: Niddrie Broadmeadows Pascoe Vale Niddrie Essendon Pascoe Vale Footscray Melbourne Brunswick

The electorate was abolished in 1955, and Ascot Vale created, but in 1958, Ascot Vale was abolished and Essendon re-created.^[1]

Essendon was held by the Liberals during the Bolte and Hamer governments, usually due to preferences from the Democratic Labor Party. The Liberals also won the seat after the Kennett landslide of 1992.

Nowadays, the electorate lies within the Labor heartland of western and northern Melbourne, and is considered to be a relatively safe seat for Labor. Judy Maddigan regained the seat for Labor at the 1996 election and retained the seat until her retirement in 2010, when it was won by the then Labor MLC, Justin Madden.

Following the 2012–2013 redivision of State electoral boundaries, Essendon lost electors from Aberfeldie to the electoral district of Niddrie and gained electors from Flemington and Travancore in the electoral district of Melbourne.^[2]

Justin Madden retired at the 2014 election and Danny Pearson of the Labor Party was elected in his stead.

Members for Essendon

First incarnation (1904–1955)
Member		Party	Term
	William Watt	Liberal	1904–1914
	Maurice Blackburn	Labor	1914–1917
	Thomas Ryan	Nationalist	1917–1924
	Frank Keane	Labor	1924–1927
	Arthur Drakeford	Labor	1927–1932
	James Dillon	United Australia	1932–1943
	Samuel Merrifield	Labor	1943–1945
	Arthur Drakeford Jr	Labor	1945–1947
	Allen Bateman	Liberal	1947–1950
	George Fewster	Labor	1950–1955
		Labor (Anti-Communist)	1955

Second incarnation (1958–present)
Member		Party	Term
	Sir Kenneth Wheeler	Liberal	1958–1979
	Barry Rowe	Labor	1979–1992
	Ian Davis	Liberal	1992–1996
	Judy Maddigan	Labor	1996–2010
	Justin Madden	Labor	2010–2014
	Danny Pearson	Labor	2014–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Essendon

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2022 Victorian state election (Legislative Assembly) § Essendon.[edit]

2022 Victorian state election: Essendon^[3][4][5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Danny Pearson	17,196	41.1	−5.1
	Liberal	Angelo Baronessa	12,331	29.5	+1.9
	Greens	Jared Prentis	6,344	15.1	−1.7
	Victorian Socialists	Daniel Nair Dadich	1,951	4.7	+4.7
	Animal Justice	Gayle Williams	1,173	2.8	+2.8
	Reason	Nicholas Hope	1,018	2.4	+2.4
	Freedom	David Wright	1,006	2.4	+2.4
	Family First	Margaret Muir	848	2.0	+2.0
Total formal votes			41,867	96.0	+0.7
Informal votes			1,761	4.0	−0.7
Turnout			43,628	88.1	+0.1
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Danny Pearson	26,146	62.5	−3.4
	Liberal	Angelo Baronessa	15,721	37.5	+3.4
	Labor hold		Swing	−3.4

Graphical summary

Two-party-preferred vote results in Essendon