1981 Cessnock state by-election

Election result for Cessnock, New South Wales, Australia

A by-election for the seat of Cessnock in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly was held on 21 February 1981. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of Bob Brown (Labor) to successfully contest the federal House of Representatives seat of Hunter at the 1980 election.

By-elections for the seats of Maitland, Oxley and Sturt were held on the same day.

Dates

Date	Event
22 January 1981	Writ of election issued by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and close of electoral rolls.
29 January 1981	Close of nominations
21 February 1981	Polling day, between the hours of 8 am and 6 pm
13 March 1981	Return of writ

1981 Cessnock by-election
Saturday 8 October
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labor	Stan Neilly	15,932	70.43
	Liberal	Colin Richardson	3,911	17.29
	Democrats	Elisabeth Kirkby	2,779	12.28
Total formal votes			22,622	98.91
Informal votes			250	1.09
Turnout			22,872	88.74
	Labor hold		Swing

^ Green, Antony. "1981 Cessnock by-election". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
"Mr Robert James Brown". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
"Writ of election: Cessnock". Government Gazette Of The State Of New South Wales. No. 16. 22 January 1981. p. 421. Retrieved 1 October 2019 – via Trove.

v t e By-elections of the 46th New South Wales parliament (1978–1981)
1980	Castlereagh Murray Ku-ring-gai Bankstown
1981	Sturt Cessnock Oxley Maitland
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By-elections