Division of Werriwa
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The Division of Werriwa is a Federal Electoral Division for the Australian House of Representatives.
The name Werriwa derives from a local Aboriginal name for Lake George, which was located in the division when it was established at Federation in 1901. At that time, the electorate was a large rural one that stretched from the south west of Sydney to the northern part of what is now the ACT.
In succeeding years, with demographic change and electoral redistributions, Werriwa began to shrink and from 1913 onwards no longer contained Lake George. In spite of this, and further major changes to its borders that saw it become a south-western Sydney city electorate over 150 km away from Lake George, it has retained the name of Werriwa, primarily as it is an original Federation electorate - the Australian Electoral Commission's guidelines on electoral redistributions require it to preserve the names of original Federation electorates where possible.
Werriwa now covers an area of approximately 168 km² from Raby, St Andrews and parts of Leumeah in the south to Kemps Creek, Cecil Hills, Green Valley, Miller, Cartwright, Lurnea and Casula in the north and bounded by the Georges River to the east and generally by South Creek, Kemps Creek and the Camden/Campbelltown Council boundary to the west. The main suburbs include Austral, Cartwright, Casula, Cecil Hills, Denham Court, Edmondson Park, Glenfield, Green Valley, Hinchinbrook, Hoxton Park, Ingleburn, Kemps Creek, Leumeah (part), Lurnea, Macquarie Fields, Miller, Minto, Prestons, Raby, St Andrews and Varroville.
Werriwa was represented from 1994 to 2005 by Mark Latham, the former Leader of the Federal Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2003-2005. It is also remembered for being the electorate (1952-78) of Latham's mentor and one-time employer, former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.
Members
- Hon Alfred Conroy (FT, AS) 1901-06
- David Hall (ALP) 1906-12
- Benjamin Bennett (ALP) 1912-13
- Hon Alfred Conroy (Lib) 1913-14
- John Lynch (ALP, Nat) 1914-19
- Hubert Lazzarini (ALP, ALP-NSW) 1919-31
- Walter McNicoll (CP) 1931-34
- Hon Hubert Lazzarini (ALP-NSW, ALP) 1934-52
- Hon Gough Whitlam (ALP) 1952-78
- Hon John Kerin (ALP) 1978-94
- Mark Latham (ALP) 1994-2005
- Chris Hayes (ALP) 2005-