Electoral district of Morialta

Morialta was the new name adopted in 2002 for the electoral district of Coles, which was first created at the 1970 election and represented over the years by several distinguished MPs, including former Dunstan Labor government Attorney General Len King, and former premier Des Corcoran.

Morialta originally contained the outer suburbs due east of the city from Auldana north to Athelstone, along with a larger area of lightly populated hinterland extending 10 kilometres east to Cherryville. The redistribution transferred part of Paradise to Hartley in the west, while a stretch of hills territory from Skye east to Basket Range was added from Bragg and Heysen.

Morialta was won at the 2002 election by Liberal minister Joan Hall, the last member for Coles, on a margin of 4.1 percent, suffering a -2.4 percent swing. At the 2006 election, Hall was thought likely to again hold the seat with a reduced margin, but was defeated by Labor candidate Lindsay Simmons amidst Labor's statewide landslide, receiving a 12 percent two-party preferred swing to finish with a 7.9 percent margin.

However, at the 2010 election there was a swing of 11.1 percent back to the Liberals, with candidate John Gardner defeating Simmons by a margin of 4.1 percent.

At the 2014 election the electorate was 356 km² in size and stretched from the Adelaide Hills east of Cudlee Creek to the outer north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide, taking in the suburbs of Athelstone, Auldana, Highbury, Rostrevor,Teringie, Woodforde and localities of Ashton, Basket Range, Birdwood, Castambul, Cherryville, Cudlee Creek, Forest Range, Gumeracha, Kenton Valley, Lenswood, Lobethal, Marble Hill, Montacute, Mount Torrens, Norton Summit, Summertown and Uraidla, as well as part of Chain of Ponds. ^[5]

At the 2018 election its western boundary was in the eastern suburbs and extended from Teringie and Woodforde in the south through Rostrevor to Highbury in the North. To the east, it extended for 20 kilometres through lightly populated Adelaide Hills territory as far as Lobethal and Birdwood. The redistribution had shifted the electorate's balance from the suburbs to the Adelaide Hills. ^[6]

The 2020 redistribution removed from the electorate the expansive but lightly populated territory in the Adelaide Hills, which were transferred to Heysen which gained the area around Marble Hill, Kavel the area around Lobethal, and Schubert the area around Gumeracha and Birdwood, which accounted for 29% of the former enrolment. It was compensated with gains in the eastern metropolitan suburbs of Adelaide, with Newton and eastern Magill gained from Hartley and Auldana from Bragg. ^[7]