Electoral district of Ross Smith explained

Ross Smith
State:sa
Created:1970
Abolished:2002
Namesake:Ross Macpherson Smith
Class:Metropolitan

The electoral district of Ross Smith was an electorate for the South Australian Legislative Assembly. It was replaced by the electoral district of Enfield for the 2002 election. Sir Ross Macpherson Smith was a member of the Australian Light Horse at Gallipoli and Sinai during World War I. He then joined the Australian Flying Corps after learning to fly in Egypt. He and his brother won the 1919 England to Australia air race (taking almost a month) and established an aerodrome at Northfield.

The naming of the seat was unique amongst electoral districts in South Australia, and indeed anywhere within Australia, in that it incorporated the first name of the individual it was named after. Most likely the case for this was to distinguish between Ross Macpherson Smith and Keith Macpherson Smith, who were brothers.

Though typically a safe Labor seat, it returned a marginal result at the 1993 election landslide, with Labor reduced to a 2.1 percent two-party margin. It returned to being a safe Labor seat at the following election.

Members for Ross Smith

MemberPartyTerm
  Jack Jennings1970–1977
  1977–1993
  1993–2002

Election results

See main article: Electoral results for the district of Ross Smith.

External links