Electoral district of Torrens

Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox Australian Electorate 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 Gilles Plains, Greenacres, Hampstead Gardens, Hillcrest, Holden Hill, Klemzig, Manningham, Oakden, Vale Park, Valley View 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 (covering the north-western and western suburbs) and the four-member Adelaide (covering central Adelaide and the inner-northern suburbs), 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 (with Burnside and Mitcham) 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 and has retained it through the 2018 election and subsequent 2022 election.

Members for Torrens

First incarnation (1902–1915, 5 members)
Term	Member		Party	Member		Party	Member		Party	Member		Party	Member		Party	Term
1902–1905	Template:Australian party style|	John Darling Jr.	National League	Template:Australian party style|	John Jenkins		Template:Australian party style|	George Soward	National League	rowspan = 2 Template:Australian party style|	Thomas Price	Labor	rowspan = 4 Template:Australian party style|	Frederick Coneybeer	Labor	1902–1905
1905–1910	rowspan = 3 Template:Australian party style|	Crawford Vaughan	Labor	rowspan = 2 Template:Australian party style|	George Dankel	Labor	rowspan = 3 Template:Australian party style|	Thomas Smeaton	Labor	1905–1910
1910–1912	Template:Australian party style|			Thomas Ryan			United Labor			1910–1912
1912–1915	Template:Australian party style|			Herbert Hudd	Liberal Union	Template:Australian party style|	Herbert Angas Parsons			Liberal Union	1912–1915

Second incarnation (1938–1985, single-member)
Member		Party	Term
Template:Australian party style|	Shirley Jeffries	Liberal and Country	1938–1944
Template:Australian party style|	Herbert Baldock	Labor	1944–1947
Template:Australian party style|	Shirley Jeffries	Liberal and Country	1947–1953
Template:Australian party style|	John Travers	Liberal and Country	1953–1956
Template:Australian party style|	John Coumbe	Liberal and Country	1956–1974
Template:Australian party style|		Liberal	1974–1977
Template:Australian party style|	Michael Wilson	Liberal	1977–1985

Third incarnation (1993–present, single-member)
Member		Party	Term
Template:Australian party style|	Joe Tiernan	Liberal	1993–1994
Template:Australian party style|	Robyn Geraghty	Labor	1994–2014
Template:Australian party style|	Dana Wortley	Labor	2014–present

References

• ECSA profile for Torrens: 2018 Template:Webarchive
• ABC profile for Torrens: 2018
• Poll Bludger profile for Torrens: 2018