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Division of Corangamite | Corio |
 Darren Cheeseman (ALP) His ALP website |  |
Location: Western Vic: Anglesea, Belmont, Colac, Queenscliff Division named for: Lake Corangamite, an Indigenous name meaning "bitter water" Median weekly family income: $887 (86th highest) Persons born in non English speaking countries: 5.0% (105th highest) Persons in professional occupations: 28.7% (46th highest) Persons aged 65 and over: 15.2% (33rd highest) Couple families with dependent children: 38.6% (69th highest) Dwellings being purchased: 27.4% (62nd highest) Sitting member: Darren Cheeseman (Labor), elected 2007 Born: 8 June 1976, Christchurch, New Zealand. Career: Union organiser. Ballarat City Council 1999-2002. 1996 two-party majority: Liberal 07.7 1998 two-party majority: Liberal 04.5 2001 two-party majority: Liberal 05.4 Effect of 2004 redistribution: 00.3 shift to Labor 2004 two-party majority: Liberal 05.3 2007 two-party majority: Labor 00.9 
2004 enrolment: 90,877 2007 enrolment: 96,155 (+05.8%) Corangamite has existed since Federation, located in south-west Victoria based on Colac and the surrounding rural areas. Although its boundaries have changed very little over the years, its demographics have changed as the outer suburbs of Geelong have spread into the north-east of the seat, and as the population of the Surf Coast towns has increased greatly. This has made what was once a very safe Liberal seat increasingly marginal. Although the seat has a fairly high income level for a rural seat, it has the usual low proportion of people born in non English speaking countries. It also has a high level of over-65s, reflecting the growth of retirement towns along the coast. Jim Scullin, later Prime Minister, held Corangamite for one term. Tony Street, Foreign Minister in the Fraser Government, held the seat from 1966. He resigned in 1984 and was succeeded by Stewart McArthur. McArthur was well-known in the rural parts of the seat, but by 2007 he was 70 and his appeal in the urban areas and among the many new voters on the coast had declined. In 2004 Labor had high hopes of winning Corangamite for the first time since 1929, but the combination of Mark Latham's unpopular forestry policy and a Labor candidate surrounded by controversy kept McArthur safe. In 2007, however, he was defeated by Darren Cheeseman, a candidate with almost no local profile. Labor polled 64% of the two-party vote at Smythesdale, and also topped 60% at Aireys Inlet, Dereel, Forrest and Teesdale. The Liberals polled 74% at Cressy and won most of the smaller rural booths. < | |  Two-party vote by booth, 2007
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