Electoral district of Ngadjuri

Ngadjuri, previously Frome prior to 2026, is a single-member electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly.^[2]

The previous name Frome is named after Edward Charles Frome, the third surveyor-general of South Australia.

During the redistribution process after the 2022 election, Reggie Martin MLC made a submission concerning the name of Frome. Martin expressed concerns over the use of Frome's name due to his involvement in retributive actions against Aboriginal people in the Coorong area following the Maria massacre. The Commission sought further information from Dr Skye Krichauff, a historian specialising in South Australian colonial history and the relations between Aboriginal people and colonists, and Professor Irene Watson. The Commission determined that the district should be renamed, and received various submissions from Aboriginal organisations who have a connection to the area encompassed by the district of Frome. The sitting member Penny Pratt had advocated for the district to be renamed in honour of former Liberal premier Steele Hall and member for Gouger and Goyder, who died earlier that year age 95. ^[3]

The name "Ngadjuri", meaning "we people", was chosen over the name "Cowie", meaning "water".^{[4]: 16–17 : 18–24} The renaming came into effect at the 2026 election.

The electorate stretches north-eastwards from the Gawler River and Gulf St Vincent in the south, and includes many of the agricultural areas of the Clare and Gilbert Valleys.

At the 2018 Election it covered a total of 12,921 km² (4,989 sq mi) and took in the towns of Auburn, Clare, Mintaro, Port Broughton, Saddleworth, Snowtown and Riverton.^[5]

Prior to the 2020 redistribution, its main population centre was Port Pirie, since transferred to Stuart.

The seat has existed in three incarnations throughout the history of the House of Assembly: as a two-seat multi-member marginal electorate from 1884 to 1902, as a single-member electorate from 1938 to 1977, and as a marginal to moderately safe single-member electorate for the Liberal Party from 1993.^[6]

The electoral districts of Pirie and Port Pirie have also historically existed.

The first incarnation of Frome was, like the rest of the state, independent-held until the development of the party system in the 1890s. The two seats were split evenly with a conservative and a liberal member from 1890 until the seat's abolition in 1902.

The second incarnation began in 1938 after the introduction of the Playmander. It was based on the area north of Port Pirie, and was originally a Labor stronghold. The seat was won by Mick O'Halloran, who held it until his death in 1960, serving as Opposition Leader from 1949 to 1960. After the Playmander was significantly diluted by the 1970 electoral reforms, Frome was moved into more conservative-leaning rural areas around Port Pirie, turning it into a notional Liberal and Country League (LCL) seat. O'Halloran's successor, Tom Casey, believed this made Frome impossible to hold and successfully transferred to the Legislative Council. The LCL, which later became the South Australia division of the Liberal Party, won the seat at the 1970 state election, and went on to hold Frome until the abolition of the seat in 1977.

The third and current incarnation was created at the 1991 redistribution as a marginal Liberal seat based on Port Pirie. The seat was first contested at the 1993 election. Despite the presence of Port Pirie, a Labor stronghold for more than a century, Labor has never won this incarnation due to the heavy Liberal tilt of the surrounding rural area. Labor did however win 50.1 percent of the two-party vote at the 2010 election, but the seat was retained by incumbent independent Geoff Brock.

Rob Kerin became the elected member in the Liberal landslide of 1993. He went on to become Premier of South Australia in 2001, and Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 after the Liberals narrowly lost the 2002 state election. Kerin chose to retire in November 2008, which triggered the January 2009 by-election. The by-election was won by independent Geoff Brock, the popular mayor of the Port Pirie Regional Council, after a very close contest with the Labor candidate for second place behind the Liberal candidate. Brock received sufficient preferences from the eliminated Labor candidate to prevail over the Liberal candidate by over 600 votes, receiving 51.7 percent of the two-candidate vote. He increased his primary and two-candidate vote significantly at the 2010 election; Labor won 50.1 percent of the "traditional" Labor/Liberal two-party preferred vote at this election.

With the 2012 redistribution, the Labor/Liberal two-party-preferred margin in Frome went from 0.1 percent Labor to 1.7 percent Liberal.^[7] Brock retained the electorate at the 2014 election with a slight increase to his margin, while the Liberals won 60.8 percent of the "traditional" two-party preferred vote. His decision to back the Labor minority government allowed Labor to win a record fourth consecutive four-year term in government.

Brock retained the electorate at the 2018 election. A redistribution in 2020 transferred the regional city of Port Pirie, where Brock was based in, from Frome to the electorate of Stuart.^[8][9] Brock transferred to Stuart at the 2022 state election and Frome was regained for the Liberal Party in the election by Penny Pratt.

In addition to a renaming from Frome to Ngadjuri, a significant redrawing of the seat occurred, with the electorate gaining around 3,200 voters from Light near Gawler and losing around 3,600 voters in the Northern Areas Council, including Jamestown and Spalding, as well as part of the Regional Council of Goyder to Stuart. Also 1,650 voters in Watchman, Balaklava, Dalkley, Hoskin Corner and Erith were transferred into Narungga. Ngadjuri lost conservative areas in the north and gained Labor-leaning areas near Gawler, significantly affecting the notional margin.^[10]

The new boundaries cut the Liberal margin from 8.1 to 3.2 per cent for the 2026 election. Tony Piccolo,Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly and the Labor MP for the neighbouring seat of Light, switched seats to contest Ngadjuri at this election.

• ECSA profile for Frome: 2018
• ABC profile for Frome: 2018
• Poll Bludger profile for Frome: 2018