Electoral district of Torrens


Torrens is a single-member electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. Located along the River Torrens, it is named after Sir Robert Richard Torrens, a 19th-century Premier of South Australia noted for being the founder of the "Torrens title" land registration system. Torrens is an suburban electorate in Adelaide's north-east. It includes the suburbs of Dernancourt, Gilles Plains, Greenacres, Hampstead Gardens, Hillcrest, Holden Hill, Klemzig, Manningham, Oakden, Vale Park and Windsor Gardens.
Torrens has had three incarnations as a South Australian House of Assembly electoral district.
It was first created for the 1902 election as a five-seat multi-member district stretching from the north-eastern suburbs through the eastern and southern suburbs to the south-western suburbs; together with the three-member Port Adelaide and the four-member Adelaide, the three districts with a total of 12-members covered the whole of the metropolitan area in the 42 member house. Torrens was abolished and absorbed into the new seats of East Torrens and Sturt at the 1915 election.
Torrens existed as a marginal to fairly safe Liberal and Country League/Liberal single-member seat under the Playmander system from the 1938 election, lasting until the 1985 election, though it was won once by Labor at the 1944 election. Torrens was one of just three metropolitan seats won by the Liberal and Country League in 1965 and 1968.
Torrens was recreated in its current state for the 1993 election, based on much of the abolished seats of Gilles and Todd, as a nominally marginal Labor seat, but was won for the Liberal Joe Tiernan. Tiernan died while in office in 1994, and Robyn Geraghty reclaimed the seat for Labor at the Torrens by-election with an 8.6 percent swing. Former Senator Dana Wortley won the seat for Labor at the 2014 election.

Members for Torrens

Election results