Ivanhoe – Victoria 2010

ALP 10.4%

Incumbent MP
Vacant. Last held by Craig Langdon, 1996-2010, who resigned from Parliament in August.

Geography
Northern Melbourne. Ivanhoe covers southern parts of Banyule council, and a small part of Darebin council. Ivanhoe covers the suburbs of Eaglemont, Heidelberg, Ivanhoe, Rosanna, View Bank and parts of Macleod.

History
Ivanhoe was first created for the 1945 Victorian state election. In that time, it has alternated between the major parties, although it was predominantly held by the Liberal Party before the ALP gained it most recently in 1996.

Ivanhoe was first won in 1945 by independent candidate Robert Gardner, who was a journalist and community organiser. He held the seat for one term, losing in 1947 to the Liberal Party’s Rupert Curnow.

Curnow died in December 1950, and the 1951 by-election was won by Liberal candidate Frank Block.

Block was defeated by the ALP’s Michael Lucy in 1952. Lucy left the ALP in 1955 to join the Anti-Communist ALP, which became the Democratic Labor Party. He lost his seat at the 1955 election to the Liberal Party’s Vernon Christie.

Christie held the seat for eighteen years, retiring in 1973. The seat was won by race-caller Bruce Skeggs for the Liberal Party. He lost the seat in 1982 to the ALP’s Tony Sheehan, although later won the Legislative Council province of Templestowe in 1988, holding it until 1996.

Sheehan lost Ivanhoe in 1985, but later held the neighbouring seat of Northcote from 1988 to 1998.

In 1985, Ivanhoe was won by Vin Heffernan of the Liberal Party. He held Ivanhoe until his defeat in 1996. The seat had long been a solidly Liberal seat, but the 1992 redistribution made the seat notionally Labor. Heffernan managed to hold on in 1992, but in 1996 he lost to the ALP’s Craig Langdon.

Langdon held the seat for the next fourteen years, but in 2009 was defeated for Labor preselection, and then resigned from Parliament in August 2010, predicting that his successor would fail to hold the seat.

Candidates

• Stephen Smith (Democratic Labor Party)
• Paul Kennedy (Greens)
• Gerrit Hendrik Schorel-Hlavka (Independent)
• Anthony Carbines (Labor)
• Carl Ziebell (Liberal)

Political situation
Ivanhoe is not the most marginal electorate in the state, but may be vulnerable in the case of a large swing to the Liberal Party, due to its volatile past.

2006 result

2006 two-candidate-preferred result

Booth breakdown
The electorate of Ivanhoe has been divided into three areas: Ivanhoe in the south, Heidelberg in the centre, and a northern area including Banyule and Rosanna. The ALP polled most strongly in the Heidelberg, with 63.7%, with 54-56% in the larger areas to the south and north. The Greens polled most strongly in Ivanhoe, at the southern end of the seat.

Note: total numbers of votes cast in primary vote figures and two-candidate-preferred figures do not always equal the same numbers. “Total votes” here is based on the two-candidate-preferred figure, but the primary vote figures are calculated from a slightly different total. Victorian Electoral Commission figures do not always match exactly.