Division of Indi
| Indi Australian House of Representatives Division |
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 Division of Indi (green) in Victoria
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| Created | 1901 |
| MP | Cathy McGowan |
| Party | Independent |
| Namesake | Murray River (Aboriginal name) |
| Electors | 98,399 (2013) |
| Area | 28,008 km2 (10,813.9 sq mi) |
| Demographic | Rural |
The Division of Indi /ɪnˈdaɪ/ is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria. It is located in north-eastern Victoria. Its northern border is the New South Wales and Victorian state boundary formed by the Murray River. It is bounded to the south-east by the Division of Gippsland, the border being roughly the watershed separating the Murray basin from Gippsland's catchment in the remote and almost completely uninhabited Australian Alps. To the south, the seat shares a small boundary with the Division of McMillan, including the isolated village of Woods Point. To the west, it also borders on the divisions of McEwen, Bendigo and Murray.
The largest settlements in the division are Wodonga, Wangaratta, and Benalla. Other towns in the electorate include Rutherglen, Mansfield, Beechworth, Bethanga, Myrtleford, Corryong, Tallangatta, Euroa and a number of other small villages (notably including the ski resort of Falls Creek). While Indi is one of the largest electorates in Victoria, much of it is located within the Alpine National Park and is thus uninhabited. While Wodonga serves as a regional hub for much of the more heavily populated northern part of the electorate, the southern part is closer to Melbourne than Wodonga.
Indi has existed continuously since Federation. It was created in 1900 and was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. It has been held by one of the conservative parties (either the Liberal Party of Australia, the National Party of Australia, or the United Australia Party) for all but four terms since Federation, and without interruption since 1931. Labor has not won the seat since 1928 when the conservative candidate forgot to nominate.[1]
The most nationally prominent person to represent Indi to date was the first, Sir Isaac Isaacs, who rose to become Attorney-General of Australia, Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, and the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia. Another member for Indi, John "Black Jack" McEwen, was a long-serving Minister and was briefly Prime Minister of Australia after the death of Harold Holt in 1967, but he was member for Murray by then. The seat has traditionally been filled by candidates who might be described as "rural gentry" who have not tended to advance beyond the back bench. This has changed in 2001 when Sophie Mirabella (then known as Sophie Panopoulos), a formerly Melbourne-based barrister, was elected with a primary vote of 40%.[2] Since 2004, Ms Mirabella's primary vote has been in decline, falling from 63% in 2004.[3] to 54% in 2007,[4] 53% in 2010 [5] and 45% in 2013.
Since 2013, the seat has been represented by independent Cathy McGowan. McGowan defeated Liberal Party incumbent Sophie Mirabella with a swing of over 9%, making Mirabella the only sitting Liberal MP to lose their seat at the 2013 Federal Election.
Members[edit]
| Member | Party | Term | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isaac Isaacs | Protectionist | 1901–1906 | |
| Joseph Brown | Anti-Socialist | 1906–1909 | |
| Commonwealth Liberal | 1909–1910 | ||
| Parker Moloney | Labor | 1910–1913 | |
| Cornelius Ahern | Commonwealth Liberal | 1913–1914 | |
| Parker Moloney | Labor | 1914–1917 | |
| John Leckie | Nationalist | 1917–1919 | |
| Robert Cook | Country | 1919–1928 | |
| Paul Jones | Labor | 1928–1931 | |
| William Hutchinson | United Australia | 1931–1937 | |
| John McEwen | Country | 1937–1949 | |
| William Bostock | Liberal | 1949–1958 | |
| Mac Holten | Country | 1958–1975 | |
| National Country | 1975–1977 | ||
| Ewen Cameron | Liberal | 1977–1993 | |
| Lou Lieberman | Liberal | 1993–2001 | |
| Sophie Mirabella | Liberal | 2001–2013 | |
| Cathy McGowan | Independent | 2013–present | |
Election results[edit]
| Australian federal election, 2013: Indi | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Liberal | Sophie Mirabella | 39,786 | 44.68 | −7.17 | |
| Independent | Cathy McGowan | 27,762 | 31.18 | +31.18 | |
| Labor | Robyn Walsh | 10,373 | 11.65 | −16.54 | |
| Greens | Jenny O'Connor | 3,041 | 3.42 | −6.21 | |
| Palmer United | Robert Murphy | 2,417 | 2.71 | +2.71 | |
| Sex Party | Helma Aschenbrenner | 1,402 | 1.57 | +1.57 | |
| Family First | Rick Leeworthy | 1,330 | 1.49 | −2.24 | |
| Rise Up Australia | Robert Dudley | 985 | 1.11 | +1.11 | |
| Independent | Jennifer Podesta | 841 | 0.94 | +0.94 | |
| Katter's Australian | Phil Rourke | 615 | 0.69 | +0.69 | |
| Bullet Train for Australia | William Hayes | 489 | 0.55 | +0.55 | |
| Total formal votes | 89,041 | 94.91 | −1.18 | ||
| Informal votes | 4,774 | 5.09 | +1.18 | ||
| Turnout | 93,815 | 95.34 | +0.73 | ||
| Two-candidate-preferred result | |||||
| Independent | Cathy McGowan | 44,730 | 50.24 | +50.24 | |
| Liberal | Sophie Mirabella | 44,311 | 49.76 | −10.16 | |
| Independent gain from Liberal | Swing | +50.24 | |||
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "2010 Federal Election Results - Indi". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2010.
- ^ "Indi - House of Representatives: Divisional Results". AEC: Past Electoral Results. Australian Electoral Commission. 2001.
- ^ "House of Representatives: Indi". Election 2004. Australian Electoral Commission. 2005.
- ^ "House of Representatives: Indi". Election 2007: Virtual Tally Room. Australian Electoral Commission. 2007.
- ^ "House of Representatives: Indi". Election 2010: Virtual Tally Room. Australian Electoral Commission. 2010.
External links[edit]
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Coordinates: 36°38′24″S 146°37′59″E / 36.640°S 146.633°E
