2011 State Election of New South Wales, Australia

By Dirk Spennemann

26 Mar 2011

NSW State Elections 2011—Polling day in the Albury Electorate

The 2011 State Election of New South Wales (Australia), held on 26 March, rewrote the political landscape. After 16 years in power, the Labor Government was rejected by a voter landslide and replaced by the Liberals. After preferences have been distributed, the Liberal are likely to command a crushing majority in the lower house (Legislative Assembly), controlling about 60 seats, compared to Labor's 20.

This essay covers the polling day in the rural city of Albury. The aim of the photo project was to cover the appearance of every polling booth in Albury City. The total electorate of Albury for the NSW Legislative Assembly (lower house) is much geographically larger than the AlburyCity (see list at bottom), the spread of which prevented a holistic coverage.

In Australia voting is compulsory. In total, 49,700 voters were enrolled in the Albury electorate.

Some of the booths were busier than others. As photography was limited to the morning and later afternoon hours to make use of the good light, the images cannot be taken as an indication of activity, but give a feel of the day. Albury is a considered a very 'safe', conservative electorate, held by the Liberal Party since 1988. Opinion polls leading up to the election indicated that Labor would be defeated. Thus, being behind on two counts, Labor did not seriously context the seat of Albury. This is well represented in the spread of the the election posters, where Labor is largely absent. While the Liberals and other conservative groups were well represented. Also running were an Independent and the Greens.

The Candidates (alpabetical order) were: Greg Aplin (Liberal)(incumbent and winner of the 2011 election); Rhonda Avasalu (Christian Democratic Party); Stephen Bingle (Democrats); Darren Cameron (Labor); Colin Hesse (Greens); Paul Wareham (Independent)

These polling booths were covered in the photo shoot: Albury High School, Albury Public School, Albury Sports Stadium, Albury West Public School, Glenroy Public School, Gulcha Street, Hume Public School, Lavington Public School, North Albury Public School, South Albury Scout Hall, Springdale Heights Public School, Thurgoona Public School

The Albury Electoral Boundaries for the NSEW State Election 2011 encompass the follwoing communities: Albury, Balldale, Bowna, Brocklesby, Bulgandry, Bungowannah, Burrumbuttock, Carabost, Cabramurra, Cookardinia, Coreen, Corowa, Courabyra, Culcairn, Daysdale, Geehi, Gerogery, Greg Greg, Henty, Holbrook, Howlong, Jindera, Jingellic, Khancoban, Lankeys Creek, Laurel Hill, Lavington, Little Billabong, Lowesdale, Mannus, Mullengandra, Mulwala, Munderoo, Ournie, Rennie, Rosewood, Savernake, Talmalmo, Thurgoona, Tom Groggin, Tooma, Tumbarumba, Walla Walla, Walbundrie, Warragoon, Woomargama, Wymah