Electoral district of Wooroora

Wooroora
South AustraliaHouse of Assembly
StateSouth Australia
Created1875
Abolished1938
DemographicRural

Wooroora was an electoral district of the House of Assembly in the Australian colony (state from 1901) of South Australia.[1]

The electorate was created by the Electoral Districts Act 1872 of the South Australian parliament but it was not until the provincial election of 1875 that candidates were first elected to represent Woorooroo. The electorate stretched from Gulf St Vincent in the west to Riverton in the east, spanning the central and northern Adelaide Plains from the River Light in the south to Hoyleton and Auburn north of the Wakefield River, in the north.

The structure of the parliament was changed and its membership reduced by the Constitution Act Amendment Act, 1901. The new Wooroora district elected three members and comprised the former Wooroora and Light districts.[2]

According to South Australian historian Geoff Manning, the name derives from an Aboriginal name for the area, the (central) Adelaide Plains, about 90 kilometres (56 mi) north of Adelaide (roughly where the Wakefield River crosses the plain).[3]

The chief polling place was listed as Riverton, with subsidiary polling places at Humphrey's Springs (now Alma), Stockport, Port Wakefield, Balaklava, Auburn, Rhynie, Watervale, Tarlee, and Hoyleton.[4] The electorate boundaries were defined as lands including the whole of the Hundreds of Goyder, Stow, Hall, Inkerman, Balaklava, Dalkey, and Alma as well as parts of the Hundreds of Dublin, Grace, Light, Gilbert, Upper Wakefield and Stanley.[4] The number of members was set at two.[4]

  1. ^ "Statistical Record of the Legislature, 1836 - 2007" (PDF). Parliament of South Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 March 2019. Retrieved 23 January 2014.
  2. ^ The Constitution Act Amendment Act (SA)
  3. ^ Manning, Geoffrey. "Place Names - Wooroora". Manning Index of South Australian History. State Library of South Australia. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  4. ^ a b c "Electoral Districts Act (No 27 of 35 and 36 Vic, 1872)". South Australia Numbered Acts. Australasian Legal Information Institute. 1872. Retrieved 22 August 2018.