| Gilmore |
Division of Gippsland | Goldstein |
 Darren Chester (Nat) His Nationals website |  |
Location: Eastern Vic: Bairnsdale, Morwell, Sale, Traralgon Division named for: The Gippsland region, named in 1839 after Sir George Gipps, Governor of NSW Median weekly family income: $746 (131st highest) Persons born in non English speaking countries: 05.4% (99th highest) Persons in professional occupations: 25.9% (68th highest) Persons engaged in agriculture: 10.0% (20th highest) Persons aged 65 and over: 14.0% (57th highest) Couple families with dependent children: 37.2% (91st highest) Dwellings being purchased: 26.5% (70th highest) Sitting member: Darren Chester (National), elected 2008 by-election Born 13 September 1967, Sale, Victoria. Career: Newspaper and television journalist, marketing consultant. Chief of Staff to Peter Ryan MLA 2004-08. 1996 two-party majority: National 18.6 1998 two-party majority: National 08.8 2001 two-party majority: National 08.0 Effect of 2004 redistribution: 05.4 shift to Labor 2004 two-party majority: National 07.7 2007 two-party majority: National 05.9 2008 by-election two-party majority: National 12.0 
2004 enrolment: 93,062 2007 enrolment: 94,882 (+02.0%) Gippsland has existed since Federation, occupying the eastern third of Victoria, the heavily agricultural Gippsland region. It has never elected a Labor member. Before 1949 the seat included the industrial towns of the La Trobe Valley, and Labor nearly won it in 1943. The 1949 redistribution moved the Valley into McMillan, cutting the Labor vote. But as Gippsland's share of Victoria's population has declined, the seat has had to expand, firstly into the dairying country of South Gippsland, and in 2004 into the Valley, when the redistribution moved Morwell and Traralgon from McMillan into Gippsland. Morwell is a strongly Labor town, Traralgon usually a moderately Labor one. This has produced a seat of two parts, both having low median income levels and very low numbers of people born in non English speaking countries, but behaving very differently politically. Gippsland has been held by the Country Party and its successor the Nationals continuously since 1922, longer than any other seat. Peter McGauran held the seat for the Nationals from 1983 until his resignation in 2008, and was a senior minister in the Howard government. The by-election following his resignation was easily won by Darren Chester At the 2007 election the Nationals polled 86% of the two-party vote at Denison and Nambrok, and topped 70% at 13 other rural booths. The Nationals also won all the booths in Bairnsdale and Sale. Labor polled 65% at Morwell Estate and 64% at Churchill, and won all the booths in Morwell. At the 2008 by-election there was a 6.1% swing to the Nationals, and Labor won only six booths. | |  Two-party vote by booth, 2007 (north)
Click to enlarge map Two-party swing by booth, 2007 (north)
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