Division of Charlton

Charlton Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Charlton (green) in New South Wales
Created	1984
Abolished	2016
Namesake	Matthew Charlton
Area	688 km2 (265.6 sq mi)
Demographic	Provincial

The Division of Charlton was an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The division was created in 1984 and is named for Matthew Charlton, who was Leader of the Australian Labor Party 1922–28.

The division was located in the Hunter region of New South Wales, including the coal-mining towns of Cardiff and Wallsend as well as Toronto, Morisset, Cooranbong, Brightwaters, Windermere Park, Sunshine, Glendale and Warners Bay.

The last Member for Charlton, from the 2013 federal election, was Pat Conroy, a member of the Australian Labor Party.

Under the original proposed redistribution for the next federal election, Charlton was set to be renamed Hunter. The current Division of Hunter would have been abolished, and the Australian Electoral Commission's guidelines for redistributions require it to preserve the names of original Federation electorates where possible.

The final plan, however, saw Charlton abolished, with Hunter pushed slightly eastward to absorb much of Charlton's former territory. Conroy will contest the neighbouring seat of Shortland.

Charlton was first created in 1984. Much of its territory came from the Division of Hunter, which Matthew Charlton held from 1910 to 1928. From its inception, it had been a safe seat for Labor. The Hunter Region is one of the few areas outside capital cities where Labor has consistently done well.