About Herbert

(Click to view the Herbert Electorate Map - courtesy of www.aec.gov.au.)

Herbert is one of 150 House of Representatives electorates in the Parliament of Australia. It covers an area of 389 sq km within the regional city of Townsville, Capital of North Queensland. The electorate also includes Magnetic Island and the Palm Island group with the seaward boundary extending to the outer barrier reef. Herbert is home to around 135,000 people, including more than 9,000 indigenous Australians.

Townsville is situated at 19.25°S below the equator in tropical North Queensland, 2,300km north of the nation's capital, Canberra.

Herbert was named after Sir Robert Herbert (1831-1905), the first Premier of Queensland, 1860-66. It was proclaimed in 1901 and is one of 75 Federation electorates which made up the first Australian parliament.

The city of Townsville has a diversified economy comprising mining and manufacturing-related industry; a sizeable defence presence (Australia's only garrison city); a thriving small business sector; numerous government agencies; a first-class university; a significant tourism industry; a substantial commercial port; and a flourishing retail and services sector.

It is also one of the most beautiful waterfront cities in Australia boasting a magnificent stretch of public recreation area along The Strand beach. The colossal orange granite Castle Hill (286m) also looms directly over the CBD, offering spectacular views across Cleveland Bay to nearby Magnetic Island and north west over the palms to Hinchinbrook Island.

Townsville is one of Australia's major gateways with the spectacular Great Barrier Reef out our front door, the very precious World Heritage Wet Tropics out the side door and the beauty and vastness of the outback out our back door.

For further information about the electorate of Herbert visit the Australian Electoral Commission here.