Electoral district of Aspley

So, I'm here in Aspley, which is an electoral district in Queensland, covering a bunch of Brisbane's north-eastern residential suburbs like Aspley itself, Bridgeman Downs, and Carseldine. It even spills into parts of McDowall, Chermside West, Bald Hills, Geebung, and Zillmere. It's all within the Brisbane City Council area now, which apparently wasn't always the case before the 2009 election.

This electorate actually started back in 1959, carved out of the old Chermside area. It used to be a really safe Liberal seat until the National-Liberal coalition fell apart in Queensland in 1983. That's when Beryce Nelson, a first-term Liberal, lost to Brian Cahill, who was a National and a former local newsreader. Funnily enough, Nelson then switched to the Nationals, got preselected, and won the seat back in 1986, but then lost it again to the Liberals' John Goss in 1989. Goss was then defeated by Labor's Bonny Barry in 2001, who held it for three terms before Tracy Davis of the Liberal National Party took it in 2009. Most recently, Bart Mellish from Labor won in 2017 and then again in 2020, even beating Amanda Cooper by a super close 31 votes in the 2024 election. Mellish just managed to hold onto it!