Division of Herbert

Herbert Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Herbert in Queensland, as of the 2016 federal election.
Created	1901
MP	Cathy O'Toole
Party	Labor
Namesake	Robert Herbert
Electors	104,841 (2016)
Area	946 km2 (365.3 sq mi)
Demographic	Provincial

The Division of Herbert is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland. Eligible voters within the Division elect a single representative, known as the member for Herbert, to the Australian House of Representatives. The division was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the 1901 election. It is located in northern Queensland, and is named after Sir Robert Herbert, the first Premier of Queensland (1859–1866). It has always been based on the city of Townsville, though on its original boundaries it extended from Mackay to the Torres Strait, covering from what are now the seats of Dawson through to Leichhardt. Successive redistributions have cut back the seat to little more than Townsville and its inner suburbs.

The seat had been a bellwether for all but two terms from the 1966 election until the 2007 election, where it was hotly contested with local identity and businessman George Colbran pre-selected by Labor to contest Herbert, however Liberal National Party (LNP) incumbent Peter Lindsay managed to retain the seat with a wafer-thin 50.2 percent two-party vote from a 6 percent two-party swing while his party lost government. LNP candidate Ewen Jones succeeded Lindsay and retained the seat at the following two elections with increased margins.