THE POLL BLUDGER
Victorian Legislative Assembly Election 2006

EVELYN
Labor 0.3%

Evelyn covers Melbourne's north-eastern outskirts from Wonga Park east through Yering and Lilydale to Seville. Labor's vote is somewhat higher in the south of the electorate, which encroaches on the outer suburbs of Lilydale, Mooroolbark and Mount Evelyn, than in the rural hamlets farther out. Wonga Park in the outer west remained an outpost of Liberal support amid the 2002 election washout, recording a two-party margin of 14.5 per cent. The electorate has had an uninterrupted existence going back to 1859, and has only been held by Labor from 1952 to 1958, 1982 to 1985 and since the 2002 election. The latter occasion saw Labor's Heather McTaggart (left) defeat sitting member Christine Fyffe by 233 votes after a 12.1 per cent swing. Labor sources say McTaggart, a former Esanda Finance "short term money market dealer" who had lately worked at Fernhill Pre-School, was approached to run by local resident Greg Sword, then national secretary of the powerful National Union of Workers (which had recently split from the Right, but has since returned to the fold in Sword's absence). Christine Fyffe (right) will have an opportunity to win her old seat back following her preselection win over Yarra Ranges councillor Clive Larkman, who has had to settle for the consolation prize of Monbulk. Fyffe had previously been a winery owner and Yarra Ranges shire commissioner following the Kennett government's local government revolution in 1994.

Local residents and the Shire of Yarra Ranges were upset when VicRoads declined to prioritise a proposed bypass of the Lilydale central business district after conducting a feasibility study. The opposition has said it would review its position on the proposal in the lead-up to the election.

ASSESSMENT: LIBERAL GAIN