Electoral district of Kalamunda

Kalamunda Western Australia—Legislative Assembly
Location of Kalamunda (dark green) in the Perth metropolitan area
State	Western Australia
Dates current	1974–1989; 2008–present
MP	Matthew Hughes
Party	Labor
Namesake	Kalamunda
Electors	29,541 (2021)
Area	448 km2 (173.0 sq mi)
Demographic	Metropolitan
Electorates around Kalamunda: Swan Hills Swan Hills Swan Hills Midland Forrestfield Kalamunda Swan Hills Thornlie Southern River Darling Range Central Wheatbelt

Kalamunda is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia.

Politically, the district is a marginal one. Based on the results of the 2005 state election, the seat was created with a Liberal Party majority of 50.2% to 49.8% versus the Labor Party.

History

Kalamunda was first created for the 1974 election and abolished ahead of the 1989 election. Despite the name, the seat was actually centred on Greenmount in the eastern Hills region, and Kalamunda itself was split between the Kalamunda seat and the neighbouring Darling Range. Despite being within the metropolitan area of Perth, it was regarded as non-metropolitan, and was assigned to the West Province in the Legislative Council. As a result, it had about half the enrolment of the neighbouring seat of Helena. Under the Acts Amendment (Electoral Reform) Act 1987, which reclassified "metropolitan" in the Electoral Act 1907 to include all land within the Metropolitan Region Scheme boundaries and at the same time increased overall metropolitan representation, Kalamunda was merged with Darling Range, and its member, Ian Thompson, won Darling Range on the new boundaries in 1989.

A new seat named Kalamunda was created for the 2008 state election when the number of metropolitan seats was increased in accordance with the new one vote one value legislation. The new district was drawn largely from Darling Range, but also from parts of Kenwick, Midland and Swan Hills.

Geography

Kalamunda is based in the eastern suburbs of Perth. Its boundaries cover two distinct areas. The northern area, centred on Kalamunda, includes Gooseberry Hill, Lesmurdie, Paulls Valley, Piesse Brook and Walliston along with tiny sections of Maida Vale and Forrestfield and all populated portions of Bickley and Carmel. A narrow section extends north to include all of Darlington. In the south, it includes much of Canning Mills, Martin and Orange Grove and the major residential portion of Maddington, excluding its commercial and industrial areas.

The earlier incarnation included the districts of Boya, Darlington, Glen Forrest, Gooseberry Hill, Greenmount, Piesse Brook and Paulls Valley, as well as northern sections of the suburb of Kalamunda including its town centre.

Members for Kalamunda

Kalamunda (1974–1989)
Member		Party	Term
	Ian Thompson	Liberal	1974–1989
Kalamunda (2008–present)
	John Day	Liberal	2008–2017
	Matthew Hughes	Labor	2017–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Kalamunda

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2021 Western Australian state election (Legislative Assembly) § Kalamunda.[edit]

2021 Western Australian state election: Kalamunda

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Matthew Hughes	13,100	51.3	+14.3
	Liberal	Liam Staltari	8,124	31.8	−5.9
	Greens	Lee-Anne Miles	2,164	8.5	−4.3
	Christians	Brady Williams	651	2.5	−0.2
	No Mandatory Vaccination	Michael Fane	415	1.6	+1.6
	Liberal Democrats	Carolyn Trigwell	382	1.5	+1.4
	One Nation	Maureen Butters	372	1.5	−5.8
	Western Australia	Stephen Phelan	267	1.0	−0.2
	WAxit	Robert Ellis	74	0.3	−0.7
Total formal votes			25,549	96.8	+0.7
Informal votes			836	3.2	−0.7
Turnout			26,385	89.3	−0.1
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Matthew Hughes	15,781	61.8	+9.5
	Liberal	Liam Staltari	9,763	38.2	−9.5
	Labor hold		Swing	+9.5

External links

• Antony Green (2 August 2024). "2008 Election Profile: Kalamunda". ABC.