About the Lingiari Electorate

One of the newest electorates in Australia, the Division of Lingiari was founded in 2001 in the Northern Territory and covers the entirety of the Territory outside of the Division of Solomon, which covers Darwin and the surrounding areas. The electorate covers a total of 1,352,371 square kilometres and includes Coco’s (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island.

Labor MP Warren Snowdon has held the seat since its inception in 2001 until his successor, Marion Scrymgour, won it at the 2022 election.
Lingiari is an unusual and beautiful electorate that is home to Uluru, one of the most recognisable natural landmarks in the world and one of the most important indigenous sites in Australia. Lingiari also includes other breath-taking locations such as Kakadu’s cascading waterfalls, Aboriginal rock art, giant crocodiles, and exotic bird life as well as Kings Canyon’s majestic 300-metre-high sandstone walls and views that stretch across the desert. Our amazing locations make Lingiari a popular destination for tourists from across the world, resulting in a thriving tourism industry.
Lingiari has a proud history, named after Aboriginal Stockman and land rights leader, Vincent Lingiari. Lingiari led two hundred Gurindji people employed by Wave Hill station, with their families, in a ‘walk-off’, a movement advocating for better pay and conditions and land rights.
The Wave Hill Walk-Off lasted nine years and is the longest strike in Australian history. The Walk-Off ended in March 1973 when the newly elected Whitlam Labor Government reached an agreement with the Wave Hill Station owner to lease 3,236 square kilometres of the Wave Hill Station to the Gurindji people for ‘residential and cultural purposes and to depasture stock’.
On 16 August 1975, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam poured a handful of red soil into Vincent Lingiari’s hand to symbolise the legal transfer of land rights to the Gurindji people.

The electorate has a proud working-class history and will continue to advocate for workers’ rights led by Marion Scrymgour MP and a Federal Labor Government.