Lyne AustralianHouse of RepresentativesDivision
Interactive map of electorate boundaries from the2025 federal election
Created	1949
MP	Alison Penfold
Party	Nationals
Namesake	Sir William Lyne
Electors	129,678 (2025)
Area	16,041 km2 (6,193.5 sq mi)
Demographic	Rural
Electorates around Lyne: New England Cowper Pacific Ocean New England Lyne Pacific Ocean Hunter Paterson Pacific Ocean

TheDivision of Lyne is anAustralian electoral division in thestate ofNew South Wales. It is on theTasman Sea coast, stretching fromHawks Nest in the south toLake Cathie in the north, comprising the inland city ofTaree.

Since2025 itsMP has beenAlison Penfold of theNational Party.

Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by theAustralian Electoral Commission. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.^[1]

It includes the city ofTaree and the major towns ofDungog,Forster,Gloucester andWauchope, as well as other smaller towns and some outer suburbs ofPort Macquarie. It covers the entirety of both theDungog Shire and theMid-Coast Council, as well as parts of thePort Macquarie-Hastings Council.

The division is named afterSir William Lyne,Premier of New South Wales at the time ofFederation. He was commissioned by the firstGovernor-General,Lord Hopetoun to form the inaugural Federal Government, but was unable to attract sufficient support to form a cabinet and returned the commission. The unsuccessful commissioning of Lyne is known asThe Hopetoun Blunder. Lyne subsequently served as a minister in the earlyProtectionist governments.

The Division of Lyne was created in a redistribution in 1949 and was represented by the National Party (previously the Country Party and National Country Party) for almost 60 years. This reflects the area's history as a strongly conservative and rural region. The division covers parts of southernPort Macquarie Hastings City and almost the entireMid-Coast Council local government areas. The area has recently undergone significant demographic changes with the arrival of a large number of retired people and city dwellers seeking a sea-change. Despite these changes, theAustralian Labor Party has made little headway in increasing its vote.

In 1993, after the exclusion of minor candidates, the Nationals'Mark Vaile led over the Liberals by only 233 votes on the third count. Labor had taken a large first-count lead, which it held for most of the night, but Vaile won after Liberal preferences flowed overwhelmingly to him. However, had 120 votes gone the other way, the Liberals would have taken the seat.^[2] Vaile later went on to become leader of the Nationals andDeputy Prime Minister during the latter stages of theHoward Government. He retired in July 2008, triggering aby-election later that year. The seat was lost toindependent candidate and former state MPRob Oakeshott, who retained the seat at the2010 election.

Oakeshott announced on 26 June 2013 that he would not contest the2013 election. It was widely expected that the seat would revert to the Nationals; despite Oakeshott's previous personal popularity, Lyne was still a comfortably safe National seat in a "traditional" two-party matchup with Labor. As expected,David Gillespie, who had been Oakeshott's opponent in 2010, easily reclaimed the seat for the Nationals.

Upon the retirement of Gillespie prior to the2025 Australian federal election, the National Party chose to nominateAlison Penfold, a former CEO of an AustralianLive export industry group and former Senate candidate. Despite a 7.3% swing against the Nationals on the primary vote which became a 4.1% swing to the Labor Party on two party preferred, Penfold was easily elected in a 60% to 40% 2PP.

Lyne is a popular area for retirees. Lyne has the highest proportion of people aged 60 and over, the lowest proportions in their 20s and 30s, and the lowest proportion of infants. Lyne has the highest median age of 50.^[3]

Image		Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Jim Eggins (1898–1952)	Country	10 December 1949 – 28 January 1952	Previously a member of theNew South Wales Legislative Council. Died in office
		Philip Lucock (1916–1996)	Country	22 March 1952 – 2 May 1975	Served asDeputy Speaker of the House of Representatives 1961–1972, 1976–1977. Retired from politics ahead of the 1980 election.
			National Country	2 May 1975 – 19 September 1980
		Bruce Cowan (1926–2011)	National Country	18 October 1980 – 16 October 1982	Previously held theNew South Wales Legislative Assembly seat ofOxley. Retired
			Nationals	16 October 1982 – 8 February 1993
		Mark Vaile (1956–)		13 March 1993 – 30 July 2008	Served as minister andDeputy Prime Minister underHoward. Resigned to retire from politics.
		Rob Oakeshott (1969–)	Independent	6 September 2008 – 5 August 2013	Previously held theNew South Wales Legislative Assembly seat ofPort Macquarie. Retired
		David Gillespie (1957–)	Nationals	7 September 2013 – 28 March 2025	Served as minister underMorrison. Retired
		Alison Penfold	Nationals	3 May 2025 – present	Incumbent

• Division of Lyne – Australian Electoral Commission

31°36′07″S152°16′37″E / 31.602°S 152.277°E /-31.602; 152.277

• Electoral divisions of Australia
• Electoral divisions of Australia in New South Wales
• Constituencies established in 1949
• 1949 establishments in Australia

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