From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Division of Cowper

Australian federal electoral division

Summary

Australian federal electoral division

Field	Value
federal	yes
name	Cowper
image
caption	Interactive map of electorate boundaries from the 2025 federal election
created	1901
mp	Pat Conaghan
mp-party	Nationals
namesake	Sir Charles Cowper
electors	131719
electors_year	2025
area	7271
class	Provincial
near-n	Page
near-ne	Pacific Ocean
near-nw	New England
near-e	Pacific Ocean
near-w	New England
near-s	Lyne
near-se	Pacific Ocean
near-sw	New England

The Division of Cowper is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. It stretches along the coast comprising the cities of Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour.

Since 2019, its MP has been Pat Conaghan of the National Party.

Geography

Cowper is located on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales. It includes the local government areas of Kempsey, Nambucca Valley and Bellingen, along with most of the City of Coffs Harbour, including Coffs Harbour and the towns and localities of Boambee, Bonville, Crossmaglen, Karangi, Lowanna, Sawtell, Toormina, Ulong and Upper Orara.

Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australian Electoral Commission. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.

History

Sir Charles Cowper]], the division's namesake

The division was created in 1900 and was one of the original 65 divisions contested at the first federal election. It is named after Sir Charles Cowper, an early Premier of New South Wales.

Except for one brief break, the seat has been held by the National Party (previously known as the Country Party) and its predecessors since 1919. Its most prominent member has been Sir Earle Page, former leader of the Country Party and interim Prime Minister of Australia in 1939. He represented Cowper from 1919 to 1961, longer than any other MP who represented one seat for his entire career. It has usually been a fairly safe National Party seat, and became more so when its more urbanised area (including Page's hometown of Grafton) was shifted to the newly created Division of Page in 1984.

The division is located on the north coast of New South Wales, and on its current boundaries takes in the towns of Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Kempsey, Macksville and Nambucca Heads.

In February 2016, New South Wales federal electoral districts were redistributed. The northern parts of Cowper, from Sapphire Beach to Red Rock were shifted to the division of Page. Since the 2019 election, the member for Cowper has been Pat Conaghan, representing the National Party of Australia.

Members

Image	Member	Party	Term	Notes
		[[File:Francis Clarke.jpg	100px]]	Francis Clarke
(1857–1939)	Protectionist	nowrap	30 March 1901 –
16 December 1903
		[[File:Henry William Lee.jpg	100px]]	Henry Lee
(1856–1927)	Free Trade	nowrap	16 December 1903 –
1906
		nowrap	Anti-Socialist	nowrap	1906 –
12 December 1906
		[[File:John Thomson (Australian politician).jpg	100px]]	John Thomson
(1862–1934)	Protectionist	nowrap	12 December 1906 –
26 May 1909
		nowrap	Liberal	nowrap	26 May 1909 –
17 February 1917
		nowrap	Nationalist	nowrap	17 February 1917 –
13 December 1919
		[[File:Earle Page.jpg	100px]]	(Sir) Earle Page
(1880–1961)	Farmers and Settlers' Association	nowrap	13 December 1919 –
22 January 1920
		nowrap	Country	nowrap	22 January 1920 –
9 December 1961
		[[File:FrankMcGuren1962.jpg	100px]]	Frank McGuren
(1909–1990)	Labor	nowrap	9 December 1961 –
30 November 1963
		[[File:Ian Robinson 1974 (cropped).jpg	100px]]	Ian Robinson
(1925–2017)	Country	nowrap	30 November 1963 –
2 May 1975
		National Country	nowrap	2 May 1975 –
16 October 1982
		Nationals	nowrap	16 October 1982 –
1 December 1984
		[[File:Nationals Placeholder.png	100px]]	Garry Nehl
(1934–2023)	nowrap	1 December 1984 –
8 October 2001	Retired
		[[File:Luke Hartsuyker 2017 (cropped).png	100px]]	Luke Hartsuyker
(1959–)	nowrap	10 November 2001 –
11 April 2019	Served as minister under Turnbull. Retired
		[[File:North Coast Regional Gardens Glasshouse Opening 2022 (cropped).jpg	100px]]	Pat Conaghan
(1971–)	nowrap	18 May 2019 –
present	Incumbent

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Cowper

References

Notes

References

"Profile of the electoral division of Cowper". [[Australian Electoral Commission]].
(14 November 2017). "The process of federal redistributions: a quick guide".
"Profile of the Electoral Division of Cowper". Australian Electoral Commission.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

electoral-divisions-of-australia electoral-divisions-of-australia-in-new-south-wales constituencies-established-in-1901 1901-establishments-in-australia

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Division of Cowper — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report