Darling Range – WA 2025

ALP 14.0%

Incumbent MP
Hugh Jones, since 2021.

• Geography
• Redistribution
• History
• Candidate summary
• Assessment
• 2021 results
• Booth breakdown
• Results maps

Geography
Eastern Perth. Darling Range is the outermost seat on the eastern edge of Perth, covering parts of the Serpentine-Jarrahdale, Armadale, Rockingham and Kwinana council areas.

The seat covers Karragullen, Roleystone, Bedfordale, Harrisdale, Byford, Darling Downs, Mundijong, Serpentine, Jarrahdale, Malmalling and parts of Baldivis, Wellard and Mount Richon.

Redistribution
Darling Range shifted slightly south, losing the remainder of Kelmscott to Armadale and gaining parts of Baldivis and Wellard east of the Kwinana Freeway from Baldivis and Kwinana. Darling Range also lost the suburb of Oakford to a new seat of the same name.

History
The seat of Darling Range has existed since 1950, with the exception of a single term in the 1970s when it was briefly abolished. The seat was originally a Country Party seat but has been won by the Liberal Party at all but one election since 1962.

Ray Owen held the seat for the Country Party from 1950 to 1962, followed by Liberal MP Kenn Dunn until 1971.

In 1971, the Liberal Party’s Ian Thompson won the seat. In 1974, the seat was renamed Kalamunda, and Thompson moved to that seat. He stayed in that seat until it was abolished in 1989, despite Darling Range being restored in 1977.

George Spriggs won Darling Range in 1977, and was followed by Bob Greig in 1987.

In 1989, the seat of Kalamunda was abolished and Ian Thompson returned to Darling Range. He was re-elected, but in 1990 he resigned from the Liberal Party to sit as an independent, and retired in 1993.

John Day won Darling Range in 1993. He held the seat for the next fifteen years. In 2008, the redistribution moved much of Darling Range back into the restored seat of Kalamunda while a large part of the abolished seat of Serpentine-Jarrahdale was moved into Darling Range.

Day moved to Kalamunda, and Tony Simpson, who had won Serpentine-Jarrahdale in 2005, moved to Darling Range. Day became a minister in the Liberal/National government after the 2008 election, while Simpson became a minister after the 2013 election.

Simpson lost in 2017 to Labor candidate Barry Urban. Later that year Urban resigned from the ALP after it emerged that he had been wearing a medal for overseas police service which he had not been awarded. Urban resigned from parliament in 2018.

The ensuing 2018 by-election was won by Liberal candidate Alyssa Hayden. Hayden held the seat for less than three years, losing in 2021 to Labor’s Hugh Jones.

Candidates

Assessment
Labor has only managed to win Darling Range in the landslides of 2017 and 2021. It is Labor’s 42nd-safest seat, so they don’t need to retain this seat to win a majority. You’d expect this seat to be in play even if the Liberals are on track to form government.

2021 result

2021 two-party-preferred result

Booth breakdown

Polling places have been split into three parts: central, north and south.

Labor’s two-party-preferred vote ranged from 57.8% in the north to 64.7% in the centre.

Election results in Darling Range at the 2021 WA state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for Labor, the Liberal Party and the Greens.

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