Electoral district of Davenport

Davenport is an electoral district of the House of Assembly in the Australian state of South Australia. It is named after nineteenth-century pioneer and politician Sir Samuel Davenport. Davenport is a 37.4km² electorate covering part of outer suburban Adelaide and the southern foothills of the Adelaide Hills. It takes in the suburbs of Bellevue Heights, Blackwood, Craigburn Farm, Coromandel Valley, Eden Hills, Glenalta and Hawthorndene, as well as parts of Bedford Park, Coromandel East, Darlington, Flagstaff Hill, O'Halloran Hill, Panorama, Pasadena and St Marys.

Davenport is based around a series of wealthy suburbs and has been a safe seat for successive conservative parties since its creation at the 1969 redistribution. It was initially won by Joyce Steele for the Liberal and Country League, but she was succeeded after one term by Dean Brown. Brown, a prominent moderate in the party, represented Davenport for 12 years before being challenged for preselection by conservative Stan Evans in 1985 (after Evans' old seat of Fisher, which took in much of the new Davenport, was moved in the 1983 redistribution). Brown retained preselection for what was now the Liberal Party of Australia despite the challenge, but Evans contested the election as an independent Liberal and defeated Brown, preventing Brown's then-likely ascension to the Liberal leadership after the election. Evans rejoined the parliamentary Liberal Party not long after the election, and represented Davenport until his retirement in 1993, when he retired so his son, Iain Evans, could enter parliament. Iain Evans has held Davenport easily ever since, was a prominent member of the Kerin shadow ministry, and became opposition leader after the Liberals' loss at the 2006 election.

Members for Davenport

External links

* [http://www.abc.net.au/elections/sa/2006/guide/dave.htm ABC profile for Davenport]
* [http://www.pollbludger.com/sa2006/davenport.htm Poll Bludger profile for Davenport]
* [http://www.seo.sa.gov.au/election2006//maps/images/509.gifState Electoral Office map for Davenport]
* [http://www.seo.sa.gov.au/apps/news/?year=2006&districtSearch=3200 State Electoral Office profile for Davenport]