1906 redistribution - 1906 & 1910 elections

Under the terms of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1902, commissioners were appointed to create federal divisions for South Australia and Tasmania and also to redistribute the divisions in the other four States. As it eventuated, only the reports for South Australia and Tasmania were accepted by the Parliament in 1903 and hence it was not until 13 July 1906 that a redistribution was proclaimed affecting the five Western Australian divisions; and the resultant boundaries were subsequently used in the 1906 and 1910 elections.

The redrawn Fremantle electorate (see Map 2) extended eastwards south of the river beyond Belmont through to Midland and Swan View, then southwards to Forrestfield and south westerly to Kardinya and Hamilton Hill. The division now included only a narrow ocean strip down to Coogee but no longer encompassed Spearwood and the country regions to the south and east. North of the Swan River, the western suburbs of Claremont, Cottesloe and Nedlands remained within the district and in the north-east, the division now encompassed Beechboro and Mirrabooka.

The official subdivisions designated for the 1910 election included Guildford, Canning and Claremont, along with Fremantle, North Fremantle, East Fremantle and South Fremantle.

Map 2: The federal electorate of Fremantle from 1906-1912.

JCPML. Records of the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library. Fremantle electorate map, 1906-1912. JCPML00968/1/2.
Reproduced from Commonwealth of Australia. 1901-1988 electoral redistributions. Canberra, 1989. Courtesy of Geoscience Australia.

1913 redistribution - 1913, 1914, 1917 & 1919 elections

The next redistribution was proclaimed on 1 February 1913 and the resultant boundaries were used in the 1913, 1914, 1917 and 1919 elections. In this redistribution the seat of Coolgardie was abolished and replaced by the new seat of Dampier. Fremantle was enlarged geographically (see Maps 3A and 3B), gaining additional suburbs north of the river including Yokine, Morley and Maylands in the north-east and City Beach and Floreat along the coast. (During these years the neighbouring seat of Perth included Perth itself and surrounding areas including Subiaco as well as extending along the coast north of City Beach around Scarborough.) The Fremantle electorate also regained territory east of Coogee and Spearwood and extended into country areas to the south beyond Mandurah and regions inland.

Designated subdivisions in Fremantle included (a) Fremantle, and North, East and South Fremantle (b) Claremont and West Subiaco (c) Maylands (d) Guildford and (e) Murray.

Map 3A

Map 3B

Maps 3A & 3B: The federal electorate of Fremantle from 1913-1921.

JCPML. Records of the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library. Fremantle electorate map, 1913-1921. JCPML00968/1/3.
Reproduced from Commonwealth of Australia. 1901-1988 electoral redistributions. Canberra, 1989. Courtesy of Geoscience Australia.

1922 redistribution
1922, 1925, 1928, 1929, 1931 & 1934 elections

The fourth redistribution was proclaimed on 13 September 1922 and the resultant boundaries were used in the 1922, 1925, 1928, 1929, 1931 and 1934 elections. John Curtin was a candidate in all of these elections except 1922 .

In this redistribution the division of Dampier was abolished (effectively it was absorbed into a much enlarged Kalgoorlie) and Forrest, a new seat in the southwest corner of the State, was created. This meant that the state had two metropolitan divisions, two in the agricultural and pastoral areas in the central west and south west and one for the rest of the State.²

The Fremantle seat (see Map 4) was now much truncated compared with its previous extent. South of the river it extended eastwards only to the Melville area and south of that encompassed Hamilton Hill, Kardinya and Coogee as well as the areas around Fremantle itself. North of the river it still included Cottesloe, Claremont, Nedlands, City Beach and Floreat and went further north to Balcatta (then Balkatta) and Karrinyup and east to Yokine. However, no longer in the electorate were such areas as Maylands, Midland, South Perth and Victoria Park.

The subdivisions now were Balkatta, Claremont and West Subiaco as well as Fremantle and North, East and South Fremantle.

When John Curtin was first elected in 1928 Fremantle had 43,864 electors compared with 40,754 in Forrest, 29,149 in Kalgoorlie, 40,731 in Perth and 48,648 in Swan giving a total of 203,146 electors in the five Western Australian seats compared with 89,045 in 1901. New South Wales had 28 members (26 in 1901), Victoria 20 (23), Queensland 10 (9) while the number from South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania remained at 7, 5 and 5 respectively.

Map 4: The federal electorate of Fremantle from 1922-1936.

JCPML. Records of the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library. Fremantle electorate map, 1922-1936. JCPML00968/1/4
Reproduced from Commonwealth of Australia. 1901-1988 electoral redistributions. Canberra, 1989. Courtesy of Geoscience Australia.