Electoral district of Lyell explained

The Electoral district of Lyell was a single-member electoral district of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. It included the towns of Queenstown and Strahan in the West Coast region of Tasmania.

The seat was created in a redistribution in 1899, and was abolished when the Tasmanian parliament adopted the Hare-Clark electoral model in 1909. It was first filled at a by-election on 10 April 1899, notable for being the first occasion on which the Labor Party contested a Tasmanian seat. Its candidate, R. Matthews, gained 40% of the votes^[1]

In 1903, Labor's James Long won the seat.^[2] At the 1909 election he successfully transferred to the multi-member seat of Darwin (now known as Braddon), but resigned the following year to successfully contest an Australian Senate seat.

Members for Lyell

Member		Party	Term
		James Gaffney	Liberal	1899–1903
		James Long	Labour	1903–1909

References

• Book: Newman, Terry. Representation of the Tasmanian People. Tasmanian Parliamentary Library. 1994. 0-7246-4147-5.
• Book: Hughes, Colin A.. Colin Hughes. Graham, B. D.. Voting for the South Australian, Western Australian and Tasmanian Lower Houses, 1890-1964. 1976. Australian National University. Canberra. 0-7081-1334-6.
• Parliament of Tasmania (2006). The Parliament of Tasmania from 1956

Notes and References

1. News: POLITICAL. . . Tas. . 19 April 1899 . 28 June 2015 . 7 . National Library of Australia. .
2. News: Election Campaign. . . Tas. . 18 March 1903 . 28 June 2015 . 3 . National Library of Australia.