If new Coalition leader Angus Taylor cares to study his history, he might learn that weird consequences can erupt – and have done so, to the great shock of the Liberal Party – when the voters of the vast electorate of Farrer, about to be abandoned by Sussan Ley, are asked to choose a new member.
The last time things went crazy for the Liberal Party in Farrer was in 1984, and no Liberal who was around at the time is likely to have forgotten it.
The byelection in Farrer precipitated by Ley’s decision to quit parliament following her defeat as leader is guaranteed to be Taylor’s first political test, and it is shaping up as a bunfight.
The Liberal Party and the Nationals can be expected to field candidates, splitting the traditional conservative vote, a surging One Nation has announced it will enter the race, and at least one popular and battle-ready independent – Michelle Milthorpe, who came second to Ley at the last election – is already out of the blocks. It wouldn’t be surprising if Labor chose to stay out of the contest and watch the feathers fly from a distance.
Farrer, sprawling along the Murray River from the foothills of the Snowy Mountains to the South Australian border, has always been conservative territory.
After the electorate was founded in 1949, it spent a comfortable quarter-century in the hands of the Liberal Party’s Sir David Fairbairn, wealthy grazier and minister in every Liberal cabinet until 1972.
Liberal Wal Fife, a minister under Malcolm Fraser, then held the seat from 1975 to 1984, when his home town of Wagga was removed from the electorate in a redistribution, and he transferred to the seat of Hume – now held by Taylor.
The election for Farrer in 1984, then, was expected to be won handsomely by the Liberal candidate, the long-time mayor of Albury, John Roach.
A fellow named Tim Fischer was chosen to run for the Nationals, but his bumbling manner of speaking meant he wasn’t initially taken too seriously.
Roach was so confident that he happily swanned off for a trip to the Netherlands in the middle of the election campaign.
The reason remains astonishing.
In 1934, the citizens of Albury were credited with saving the crew of a KLM Royal Dutch Airline plane called the Uiver.
The plane became lost in a storm over the upper Murray during the London to Melbourne air race, an event followed keenly by people throughout the world.
With the situation growing ever more desperate, the Albury town engineer used the town’s electric lighting system to flash morse code into the night sky, hoping to catch the attention of the Uiver’s captain.
The local radio station’s announcer, Cleaver Bunton, went on air and called on everyone with a car to drive urgently to the racecourse and line up to create a makeshift landing strip lit with their headlights.
Amazingly, the Uiver, guided by the lights, landed safely. It became bogged, but the following morning, townsfolk dug it out and pushed it to solid ground. The plane took off and won the race by handicap.
It caused a world sensation.
Fifty years later, the Dutch government announced it would present a medal honouring the city of Albury.
Alderman John Roach, Albury mayor and Liberal candidate for Farrer, flew to the Netherlands to accept the honour, leaving behind the election campaign.
In Roach’s absence, Fischer turned out to be a very canny candidate for the Nationals.
He hurtled around the electorate, meeting voters during brief stops in every small town and district, earning the nickname Two Minute Tim.
He even hired a venerable plane, the Silver City, formerly the VIP aircraft used by BHP executives, loaded it with journalists – including me, as I was employed by the Albury Border Morning Mail at the time – and took his campaign to the air.
When Roach returned from the Netherlands, I met him at Albury airport, inquired about whether he’d enjoyed his overseas jaunt, and asked whether he realised he was about to lose his tilt for Farrer.
He wasn’t happy and, unsurprisingly, berated me for asking such an impudent question.
Sure enough, a few days later Fischer became the member for Farrer. He held it comfortably until 2001, when he retired and Ley won it back for the Liberal Party.
Angus Taylor, having been handed a particularly awkward byelection by Sussan Ley, the leader he defeated on Friday, might advise whoever is chosen as the Liberal candidate to check their travel diaries and cancel any trip west of the South Australian border or east of the upper Murray.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.
Tony Wright is an associate editor and special writer for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
