Electoral district of Townsville

Townsville is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland. The seat is one of four within the Townsville urban area in North Queensland, and covers the Eastern and Northern suburbs of the City of Townsville as well as Magnetic Island and Palm Island.^[1]

Townsville Queensland—Legislative Assembly
Electoral map of Townsville, 2024
State	Queensland
Dates current	1878–present
MP	Adam Baillie
Party	Liberal National
Namesake	Townsville
Electors	35,337 (2020)
Area	251 km2 (96.9 sq mi)
Demographic	Provincial
Coordinates	18°55′S 146°41′E
Electorates around Townsville: Hinchinbrook Coral Sea Coral Sea Hinchinbrook Townsville Coral Sea Thuringowa Mundingburra Mundingburra

Electoral map of Townsville 2008

Significant features in Townsville within the electorate are; The Strand, the Port of Townsville, Townsville Airport, RAAF Garbutt, Castle Hill, Museum of Tropical Queensland, Reef HQ, various administrative centres for Local, State and federal Governments. Suburbs of Townsville within the Electorate include; Townsville, North Ward, Castle Hill, Belgian Gardens, West End, Hyde Park, Garbutt, Mount Louisa, Currajong, Railway Estate, South Townsville, Rowes Bay, Bohle and Pallarenda.^[2] Two populated islands fall within the electorate; Magnetic Island and Palm Island, each have about 2500 residents,^[3][4] 93% of Palm Island's inhabitants are Indigenous.^[5]

This State electorate falls completely within the eastern portion of the Federal Division of Herbert. It encompasses the local government areas of Palm Island and parts of Townsville.

Townsville Electorate is bordered by the Hinchinbrook (North), Burdekin (South), Mundingburra (South and West) and Thuringowa (West) Electorates.^[6]

History

The Electoral district of Townsville was created in 1878, then the Additional Members Act of 1885 (which took effect late 1885 / early 1886) was divided in two, one retaining the name of Townsville, the other becoming Musgrave which existed until 1923. From late 1885 it was determined that the Townsville Electorate would elect two representatives to the Legislative Assembly.^[7]

Premier Robert Philp (Premier 1899–1903 and 1907–08) was elected as one of the two Townsville members when his previous Electorate of Musgrave absorbed. His parliamentary activity was mainly in support of North Queensland and his own business interests - extending railway links to North Queensland, and the abolition of import tariffs. When the import of Pacific Islanders was temporarily halted in 1892 Philp was instrumental in securing its resumption.

In 1912 the Electoral district of Mundingburra was created to accommodate for the return to universal single member electorates. 1923 saw the further reduction in size of the Electorate with the northern part of the city ceded to Kennedy and the southern part to Mundingburra, and in 1959 it was abolished and divided into the two electorates of Townsville South and Townsville North. The 1971 redistribution recreated the Electorate with new neighbours, Townsville West and Townsville South, Townsville included most of the Northern part of the City and some rural areas which were formerly in Hinchinbrook. The Electorate was reduced in size again in 1986 redistribution with a new neighbour of Townsville East. When Townsville East was abolished in 1991 Townsville Electorate gained land but lost land in the South-West corner to the newly re-created seat of Mundingburra.^[7]

In 1998 Mike Reyolds was elected as the new Member for the Townsville Electorate taking over from retiring Labor Member Ken Geoff Smith and was immediately appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier in North Queensland. After increasing the Townsville margin in 2001 Reynolds was promoted to Cabinet as Minister for Emergency Services and Minister Assisting the Premier in North Queensland. In 2004, Reynolds was moved to the new Child Safety Ministry with Ministerial responsibilities for adoptions, child protection services, foster/kinship carers etc.

After the 2006 election, Reynolds was elected as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland by the 52nd Parliament on 10 October 2006.

Members for Townsville

First incarnation (1878–1885, 1 member)
Member		Party	Term
	John Deane	Unaligned	1878–1879
	John Murtagh Macrossan	Unaligned	1879–1885
Second incarnation (1885–1912, 2 members)
Member		Party	Term
	John Murtagh Macrossan	Unaligned	1885–1891
	William Villiers Brown	Unaligned	1885–1888
	Robert Philp	Opposition/Ministerialist	1888–1912
	William Villiers Brown	Unaligned	1891–1893
	George Burns	Ministerialist	1893
	Anthony Ogden	Labour	1894–1896
	William Castling	Ministerialist	1896–1899
	Patrick Hanran	Ministerialist	1899–1909
	Thomas Foley	Labour	1909–1912
Third incarnation (1912–1960, 1 member)
Member		Party	Term
	Robert Philp	Opposition/Ministerialist	1912–1915
	Daniel Ryan	Labor	1915–1920
	William Green	Northern Country	1920–1923
	Maurice Hynes	Labor	1923–1939
	George Keyatta	Labor	1939–1960
Fourth incarnation (1972–present, 1 member)
Member		Party	Term
	Norman Scott-Young	Liberal	1972–1983
	Ken McElligott	Labor	1983–1986
	Tony Burreket	National	1986–1989
	Ken Davies	Labor	1989–1992
	Geoff Smith	Labor	1992–1998
	Mike Reynolds	Labor	1998–2009
	Mandy Johnstone	Labor	2009–2012
	John Hathaway	Liberal National	2012–2015
	Scott Stewart	Labor	2015–2024
	Adam Baillie	Liberal National	2024–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Townsville

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2024 Queensland state election § Townsville.[edit]

2024 Queensland state election: Townsville^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal National	Adam Baillie	12,346	41.24	+7.79
	Labor	Scott Stewart	8,921	29.80	−6.40
	Katter's Australian	Margie Ryder	3,770	12.59	+1.02
	Greens	Benjamin Tiley	2,428	8.11	−0.21
	One Nation	Alan Butt	1,222	4.08	−0.47
	Independent	Wesley Newman	744	2.49	+2.49
	Family First	William Tento	505	1.69	+1.69
Total formal votes			29,936	95.86	+0.82
Informal votes			1,294	4.14	−0.82
Turnout			31,230	82.46	−2.18
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal National	Adam Baillie	16,644	55.60	+8.72
	Labor	Scott Stewart	13,292	44.40	−8.72
	Liberal National gain from Labor		Swing	+8.72

Primary vote results in Townsville (Fourth Incarnation) (Parties that did not get 5% of the vote are omitted)

  Labor

  Liberal National

  Liberal

  Country/National

  Greens

  One Nation

  Katter's Australian

  Palmer United/United Australia Party

  Queensland Labor

  Independent

Two-candidate-preferred vote results in Townsville (Fourth Incarnation)