1960 Queensland state election explained

Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 28 May 1960 to elect the 78 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. The election followed the enactment of the Electoral Districts Act 1958 which increased the Assembly from 75 to 78 seats and modified the zonal system first established by Labor ahead of the 1950 election.

The major parties contesting the election were the Country Party led by Premier Frank Nicklin, the Liberal Party led by Kenneth Morris, the Labor Party led by Jack Duggan and the Queensland Labor Party led by Vince Gair. The Country and Liberal parties had formed a coalition.

The Country-Liberal coalition won a second term in office at the election, although the Labor Party recovered 5 seats and 11% of its vote from the 1957 election. Still, it was the first time since 1912 that a non-Labor government had been re-elected in Queensland.

Key dates

Date	Event
13 April 1960	The Parliament was dissolved.
19 April 1960	Writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.
26 April 1960	Close of nominations.
28 May 1960	Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
9 June 1960	The Nicklin Ministry was reconstituted.
8 July 1960	The writ was returned and the results formally declared.
23 August 1960	Parliament resumed for business.

Results

See also: Results of the Queensland state election, 1960.

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831,398 electors were enrolled to vote at the election, but two Country seats representing 17,814 enrolled voters were unopposed.

Seats changing party representation

There was an extensive redistribution across Queensland prior to this election, increasing the amount of seats from 75 to 78. The seat changes are as follows.

Abolished seats

Seat	Incumbent member	Party
Belyando	Tom Foley			Queensland Labor
Bremer	Jim Donald			Labor
Buranda	Keith Hooper			Liberal
Carpentaria	Norm Smith			Queensland Labor
Charters Towers	Arthur Jones			Queensland Labor
Chermside	Alex Dewar			Liberal
Coorparoo	Thomas Hiley			Liberal
Fitzroy	Jim Clark			Labor
Fortitude Valley	Bob Windsor			Liberal
Haughton	Colin McCathie			Queensland Labor
Ipswich	Ivor Marsden			Labor
Kelvin Grove	Douglas Tooth			Liberal
Keppel	Merv Thackeray			Labor
Marodian	James Heading			Country
Mundingburra	Tom Aikens			NQ Labor
Nash	Max Hodges			Country
North Toowoomba	Jack Duggan			Labor
Rockhampton	Mick Gardner			Queensland Labor
Southport	Eric Gaven			Country
Toowoomba	Mervyn Anderson			Liberal
Townsville	George Keyatta			Labor

• Members listed in italics retired at this election.

New seats

Seat	Party		Elected member
Albert			Country	Cec Carey
Ashgrove			Liberal	Douglas Tooth
Aspley			Liberal	Fred Campbell
Belmont			Labor	Fred Newton
Bowen			Liberal	Peter Delamothe
Burke			Labor	Alec Inch
Burnett			Country	Claude Wharton
Chatsworth			Liberal	Thomas Hiley
Greenslopes			Liberal	Keith Hooper
Gympie			Country	Max Hodges
Hawthorne			Labor	Bill Baxter
Ipswich East			Labor	Jim Donald
Ipswich West			Labor	Ivor Marsden
Nudgee			Labor	Jack Melloy
Redcliffe			Independent	Jim Houghton
Rockhampton North			Labor	Merv Thackeray
Rockhampton South			Liberal	Rex Pilbeam
Salisbury			Labor	Doug Sherrington
South Coast			Country	Eric Gaven
Toowoomba East			Liberal	Mervyn Anderson
Toowoomba West			Labor	Jack Duggan
Townsville North			Labor	Perc Tucker
Townsville South			NQ Labor	Tom Aikens
Wavell			Liberal	Alex Dewar

Seats changing hands

Seat	Incumbent member	Party		New member	Party
Aubigny	Jim Sparkes			Country	Les Diplock			Queensland Labor
Baroona	Bill Power			Queensland Labor	Pat Hanlon			Labor
Condamine	Les Diplock			Queensland Labor	Vic Sullivan			Country
Hinchinbrook	Cecil Jesson			Labor	John Row			Country
Ithaca	Pat Hanlon			Labor	Bob Windsor			Liberal
Sandgate	Thomas Ahearn			Liberal	Harry Dean			Labor
South Brisbane	Vince Gair			Queensland Labor	Col Bennett			Labor

• Members listed in italics did not recontest their seats.

See also

• Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1957–1960
• Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1960–1963
• Candidates of the Queensland state election, 1960
• Nicklin Ministry