Johns River

The Port Macquarie State Electorate

The Port Macquarie electorate is one of eight North Coast electorates in NSW, incorporating parts of the Hastings and Greater Taree local government areas. 

NSW State Electorate Map of Port Macquarie, including Laurieton and Harrington

Currently held by the Nationals Leslie Williams, It stretches from just north of Port at Point Plomer, down to Harrington Waters at it's southernmost point, taking in all of the Camden Haven communities in it's reach, including of course, Johns River and the entire Stewarts River valley.

With a total population of 60,000 residents, it's a largely centrist and progressive voting electorate, with 3 out of 5  residents having no children or being single parents, groups notionally less likely to embrace particularly conservative values, more common amongst the one-quarter of the no-children block who are 65 or older.   Port Macquarie has the second-highest average ages of all state electorates.

It's a growing electorate too, having an average net influx of just over 1000 new residents annually over the last decade, most of which arrive from Sydney suburbs Penrith, Bankstown, Blacktown and Gosford amongst others.

From North to South and East

In addition to the main nexus of Lake Cathie, Bonny Hills and the Laurieton area, the whole of the Camden Haven is included, from Lorne, Kew, and Kendall, down to Johns River, Hannam Vale, Moorland and Coopernook.   There is indeed a bit of travel involved for the seat also, with a two-and-a-half hour flight out to Lord Howe Island from time to time too.

Taking in all of the Camden and Stewarts River catchments, it's also an electorate with dozens of nature reserves, state forests and national parks, including Limeburners Creek Nature Reserve in the north, down to Lake Innes, Queens Lake and Kattang Nature Reserves around Bonny Hills and Laurieton.

Our Johns River area is ringed by Middle Brother, Dooragan (North Brother), Crowdy Bay and Coorabakh National Parks, as well as the Middle Brother, Johns River, and Lansdowne State Forests.

The electorate goes down over to the Koppin Yarratt creek running west of Central Lansdowne, flowing into the Lansdowne River near the town of the same name, and on down to the mighty Manning River, including all of Harrington and Crowdy Head.