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| Adam Carr's Election Archive
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Victorian state election, 28 November 2026
Bendigo West District
Location: Bendigo, Castlemaine, Eaglehawk
Legislative Council:
Northern Victoria Region
Enrolment 2022 election: 47,808
Enrolment June 2026: 49,375 (up 3.3%)
Relevant demographics (2021 census)
High income: 12.8% (Aust average 22.6%)
Renting: 26.1% (Aust average 30.6%)
Paying a mortgage: 33.0% (Aust average 35.0%)
Couples with children: 51.0% (Aust average 43.7%)
Born overseas: 10.6% (Aust average 27.7%)
No religion: 50.9% (Aust average 38.9%)
University graduate: 20.9% (Aust average 26.3%)
Professional / managerial: 33.1% (Aust average 37.7%)
Sitting member: Hon Maree Edwards (Labor): Elected 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022. Retiring 2026
Born 2 February 1962, Bendigo. Educated La Trobe University. Electorate officer for Bob Cameron MP. Deputy Speaker 2017-22. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly from August 2022.
Status: Safe Labor
2018 Labor majority over Liberal: 18.6%
2022 Labor majority over Liberal: 14.4%
Bendigo West was created in 1985, when the old seats of Bendigo and Midlands were abolished and new seats of Bendigo East and West were created. Bendigo West takes in the central and western parts of the city of Bendigo, plus the regional towns of Castlemaine and Harcourt. Like all country seats, it is very monocultural, with low levels of graduates and high-income earners. Bendigo is a regional administrative and economic hub and a major tourism centre, increasingly colonised by exurbanites from Melbourne. These trends have made the area increasingly solid for Labor. The Liberals have not won a Bendigo seat, state or federal, since 1996.
Bendigo West has generally been the safer for Labor of the two Bendigo seats. It was won by the Liberals only in the Kennett landslide year of 1992. Labor's Bob Cameron won it back in 1999 and was a minister in the Bracks government. He retired in 2010, and Maree Edwards has held the seat fairly easily since, gaining a large swing in 2014. In August 2026 she announced that she would not contest the November election.
The new Labor candidate is Brenton Baldwin, who works in the not-for-profit health sector,
The Nationals candidate is David Hutchings, an accountant.
The Greens candidate is Liza Shaw, a community health worker.
2022 results
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Boundaries following
2021 redistricting |
See full-size map
Candidates:
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Brenton Baldwin
Labor Party |
David Hutchings
Labor Party |
Tayne Shalevski
Victorian Socialists |
Liza Shaw
Australian Greens |
Candidate websites
Brenton Baldwin (Labor)
David Hutchings (Nationals)
Tayne Shalevski (Vic Socialists)
Liza Shaw (Greens)
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