Electoral district of Wallsend

Wallsend is a Newcastle suburban electorate, deriving its name from the suburb of the same name, covering 116.83 km². It encompasses part or whole of the suburbs of Beresfield, Birmingham Gardens, Black Hill, Callaghan (encompassing Newcastle University), Cardiff, Cardiff Heights, Elermore Vale, Fletcher, Glendale, Hexham, Jesmond, Lambton, Lenaghan, Maryland, Minmi, New Lambton, New Lambton Heights, North Lambton, Rankin Park, Shortland, Tarro, Wallsend, Waratah and Waratah West.^[2] There were 56,506 people enrolled within the electorate as of January 2015.^[3]

Wallsend was initially settled as a coal mining area and has developed into one of the poorer dormitory areas for the industrial hub of Newcastle. Throughout its history Wallsend has been a safe Labor seat.

It was first created in 1894 with the abolition of multi-member districts from part of the electoral district of Newcastle, but was abolished in 1904 with the reduction of the size of the Legislative Assembly after Federation. It was recreated between 1917 but with the introduction of proportional representation in 1920, it was absorbed into Newcastle. In 1930, it was abolished and partly replaced by Waratah. It was most recently recreated at the 1968 redistribution, largely from the abolished district of Kurri Kurri.

In its current incarnation it has had three members to date. The first was Ken Booth who eventually became the state treasurer in the Wran and Unsworth governments. He was succeeded by John Mills, who was in turn succeeded by Sonia Hornery.

At the 2023 New South Wales election, Wallsend was the safest Labor seat in the state, held on a 31% margin