Capital punishment in Australia
Encyclopedia
Capital punishment
has been formally abolished in Australia
. It was last used in 1967, when Ronald Ryan
was hanged
in Victoria
. Ryan was the last of 114 people executed in the 20th century and prior to his execution Queensland
and New South Wales
had already abolished the death penalty for murder. Brenda Hodge
became the last person sentenced to death in August 1984. Her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and she was paroled in 1995. It was removed as a punishment for murder in all states by 1984 when the state of Western Australia
abolished the death penalty for all crimes, and the next year NSW removed death as a possible punishment for treason, piracy and arson of naval dockyards
.
Between Ryan's execution and 1984 occasional death sentences were passed in Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia, but were commuted to life imprisonment. In 2010 federal legislation prohibited capital punishment in all Australian states and territories.
. In some cases the condemned could be denied mortuary rites. The first executions carried out under European law in Australia took place in Western Australia in 1629, when Dutch authorities hanged the mutineers of the Batavia
.
Capital punishment had been part of the legal system of Australia since British settlement and during the 19th century, crimes that could carry a death sentence included burglary, sheep stealing, forgery, sexual assaults, murder and manslaughter and there is one reported case of someone being executed for "being illegally at large" and during the 19th century, these crimes saw about 80 people hanged each year throughout Australia.
Before and after federation, each state made its own criminal laws and punishments.
No executions were carried out under the bridge of the federal government
and the passage of the Death Penalty Abolition Act 1973 saw the death penalty replaced with life imprisonment
as their maximum punishment. Since the Commonwealth effects of utilizing this Act no more individuals have been exposed to the death penalty and it is now replaced with life imprisonment.
On 11 March 2010 Federal Parliament passed laws that prevent the death penalty from being reintroduced by any state or territory in Australia.
Neither the Commonwealth nor any of the states will extradite or deport a prisoner to another jurisdiction if they will face the death penalty. A recent case involving this was the case of Gabe Watson, who was convicted of the manslaughter of his wife in North Queensland, and faced capital murder charges in his home state of Alabama. His deportation was delayed until the government received assurances that he would not be executed if found guilty.
for the murder of Marjorie Constance Sommarlad and capital punishment was abolished for murder in 1955 and for all crimes in 1984. New South Wales was the last Australian State to abolish the death penalty for all crimes.
Ronald Ryan
was the last man executed at Pentridge Prison and in Australia. Ryan was hanged on 3 February 1967 after being convicted of the shooting death of a prison officer during a prison escape from Pentridge Prison
, Victoria
in 1965.
Ryan was the last of 186 executions.
Not all those executed were murderers, Albert McNamara was hanged for Arson
in 1902 and David Bennett hanged in 1932 was convicted of raping a four year old girl.
The number includes the triple murderer Edward Leonski, executed by the U.S. Army in 1942.
The beam used to execute the condemned prisoner was removed from Old Melbourne Gaol and installed in D Division at Pentridge Prison
by the condemned child rapist David Bennett. It was used for all 10 Pentridge hangings. After Victoria abolished capital punishment in 1975 the beam was removed and put into storage. It was reinstalled at the Old Melbourne Gaol in August 2000.
was hanged for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl.
Only one woman was hanged, Ellen Thompson, who was convicted of murdering her husband with the help of her lover.
, between 1829 and 1855, hangings were performed at a variety of places, even the site of the offence and this changed in 1856, with the construction of the Perth Gaol
, which became the main execution site in the state. John Gavin was the first European settler to be legally executed in Western Australia. He was executed for murder in 1844 at the age of fifteen. The last change in site was in 1888, when what had been the Imperial Convict Establishment at Fremantle was first used for hangings. It had been renamed the Fremantle Prison in 1886 and handed over to the colonial government to be a major high security prison; 43 men (and 1 woman, Martha Rendell
) were to be hanged there.
Hangings would take place at 8 a.m. on Monday mornings. The condemned would be woken at 5:30 a.m., showered, transferred to the condemned cell, given the services of a spiritual adviser, and offered a glass of whiskey. On leaving the condemned cell they would be taken to the gallows; usually only 60 seconds elapsed before the trap was pulled.
The last execution was that of Eric Edgar Cooke
on 26 October 1964 at Fremantle Prison
. Cooke had been convicted on one count of murder, but evidence and his confessions suggested he had committed many more. The last sentence of death in Western Australia (indeed anywhere in Australia) was passed in 1984, but the female killer (Brenda Hodge
) in question had her sentence commuted to imprisonment for life, as was customary by this stage.
Capital punishment was formally removed from the statutes of the state with the passage of the Acts Amendment (Abolition of Capital Punishment) Act 1984.
was the site of fifty hangings from Pitti Miltinda on 7 June 1861 to Glen Sabre Valance
, murderer and rapist, on 24 November 1964 and three executions also occurred at Mount Gambier Gaol
.
Elizabeth Woolcock
, the only woman ever to have been executed under South Australian law, was hanged on 30 December 1873. Her body was not released to the family and was buried between the inner and outer walls of the prison, identified by a number and the date of the execution.
In 1976, the Criminal Law Consolidation Act was modified so that the death sentence was changed to life imprisonment.
, was the site of penal transports. Mary McLauchlan was convicted in 1830 for infanticide, she was sentenced to both death and dissection. She was the first woman to be hanged in Tasmania.
The last execution was in 1946, that of serial murderer and rapist Frederick Thompson. The death penalty was abolished in 1968.
There were several outcries over Aborigines receiving mandatory death sentences for murder, leading to the passage of the Crimes Ordinance 1934 which allowed for discretionary sentences when both the accused and the victim were Aboriginal.
The last execution was a double hanging in 1952, and the death penalty was abolished 1973.
banned capital punishment on a state-by-state basis through the 20th century, and today, the practice is widely condemned by most Australians. However, there have been recent cases where Australians contradicted this, such as the case of the Bali bombers, in which then Prime Minister of Australia
John Howard
, stated Australians expected their execution by Indonesia
.
On occasion the issue of Capital Punishment is published in the media or is subject to media and public support and scrutiny. Most occasions where Capital Punishment is brought up in the media, it is regarding current cases of intense media coverage regarding murder
, rape
and in extreme circumstances such as terrorism
. In various occasions, the media and public express support for Capital Punishment for the most heinous of crimes committed against humanity including mass murder
such as in the cases of Backpacker Murders
and the Port Arthur massacre. Both the Milat Backpacker murders
and the Bryant Port Arthur massacre killed a combined 42 people and stirred strong emotions as to whether or not to reintroduce the Death Penalty. However, no person of significant stature or influence has advocated the Death Penalty for quite some time since the last execution in 1967.
The death penalty was completely abolished and outlawed in Australia with the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Torture Prohibition and Death Penalty Abolition) Bill 2009 passing the Australian Senate
without amendments in March 2010. There are no plans to restore capital punishment in Australia.
The below table reflects the results of a public opinion survey conducted by the Roy Morgan institute where responders were given the following question: "In your opinion, should the penalty for murder be death or imprisonment?" The surveyors conducted the poll for people from 14 and onwards in age with around 687 people completing the survey for publication in December 2009. The results of the poll are as follows:
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
has been formally abolished in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. It was last used in 1967, when Ronald Ryan
Ronald Ryan
Ronald Joseph Ryan was the last person to be legally executed in Australia. Ryan was found guilty of shooting and killing prison officer George Hodson during a prison escape from Pentridge Prison, Victoria in 1965...
was hanged
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
in Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
. Ryan was the last of 114 people executed in the 20th century and prior to his execution Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
and New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
had already abolished the death penalty for murder. Brenda Hodge
Brenda Hodge
Brenda Hodge was the last person to be sentenced to death in Australia. She was found guilty of murdering her de-facto partner in 1984 and was sentenced to death. Her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.-Early life:...
became the last person sentenced to death in August 1984. Her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and she was paroled in 1995. It was removed as a punishment for murder in all states by 1984 when the state of Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
abolished the death penalty for all crimes, and the next year NSW removed death as a possible punishment for treason, piracy and arson of naval dockyards
Arson in royal dockyards
Arson in royal dockyards was among the last offences that were punishable by execution in the United Kingdom. It remained a capital offence even after the death penalty was abolished for murder in 1965, although John the Painter seems to be the only one ever actually executed for it, in 1777...
.
Between Ryan's execution and 1984 occasional death sentences were passed in Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia, but were commuted to life imprisonment. In 2010 federal legislation prohibited capital punishment in all Australian states and territories.
History
Death sentences were carried out under Aboriginal customary law, either directly or through sorceryMagic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
. In some cases the condemned could be denied mortuary rites. The first executions carried out under European law in Australia took place in Western Australia in 1629, when Dutch authorities hanged the mutineers of the Batavia
Batavia (ship)
Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company . It was built in Amsterdam in 1628, and armed with 24 cast iron cannons and a number of bronze guns. Batavia was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage, and was made famous by the subsequent mutiny and massacre that took place among the survivors...
.
Capital punishment had been part of the legal system of Australia since British settlement and during the 19th century, crimes that could carry a death sentence included burglary, sheep stealing, forgery, sexual assaults, murder and manslaughter and there is one reported case of someone being executed for "being illegally at large" and during the 19th century, these crimes saw about 80 people hanged each year throughout Australia.
Before and after federation, each state made its own criminal laws and punishments.
Commonwealth
In 1973 the Death Penalty Abolition Act 1973 of the Commonwealth abolished the death penalty for federal offences. It provided in Section 3 that the Act applied to any offence against a law of the Commonwealth, the Territories or under an Imperial Act, and in s. 4 that "[a] person is not liable to the punishment of death for any offence".No executions were carried out under the bridge of the federal government
Government of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement among six self-governing British colonies, which became the six states...
and the passage of the Death Penalty Abolition Act 1973 saw the death penalty replaced with life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
as their maximum punishment. Since the Commonwealth effects of utilizing this Act no more individuals have been exposed to the death penalty and it is now replaced with life imprisonment.
On 11 March 2010 Federal Parliament passed laws that prevent the death penalty from being reintroduced by any state or territory in Australia.
Neither the Commonwealth nor any of the states will extradite or deport a prisoner to another jurisdiction if they will face the death penalty. A recent case involving this was the case of Gabe Watson, who was convicted of the manslaughter of his wife in North Queensland, and faced capital murder charges in his home state of Alabama. His deportation was delayed until the government received assurances that he would not be executed if found guilty.
New South Wales
The last execution in NSW was carried out on 24 August 1939, when John Trevor Kelly was hanged at Sydney's Long Bay Correctional CentreLong Bay Correctional Centre
Long Bay Correctional Complex is located in the suburb of Malabar in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Long Bay comprises six institutions, four maximum security and two minimum security.-History:...
for the murder of Marjorie Constance Sommarlad and capital punishment was abolished for murder in 1955 and for all crimes in 1984. New South Wales was the last Australian State to abolish the death penalty for all crimes.
Victoria
Victoria’s first executions occurred in 1842 when two natives were hanged outside the site of the Melbourne Gaol for the killing of two whalers in the Westernport district.Ronald Ryan
Ronald Ryan
Ronald Joseph Ryan was the last person to be legally executed in Australia. Ryan was found guilty of shooting and killing prison officer George Hodson during a prison escape from Pentridge Prison, Victoria in 1965...
was the last man executed at Pentridge Prison and in Australia. Ryan was hanged on 3 February 1967 after being convicted of the shooting death of a prison officer during a prison escape from Pentridge Prison
HM Prison Pentridge
HM Prison Pentridge was an Australian prison built in 1850 in Coburg, Victoria. The first prisoners arrived in 1851. The prison officially closed on 1 May 1997....
, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
in 1965.
Ryan was the last of 186 executions.
Not all those executed were murderers, Albert McNamara was hanged for Arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
in 1902 and David Bennett hanged in 1932 was convicted of raping a four year old girl.
The number includes the triple murderer Edward Leonski, executed by the U.S. Army in 1942.
The beam used to execute the condemned prisoner was removed from Old Melbourne Gaol and installed in D Division at Pentridge Prison
HM Prison Pentridge
HM Prison Pentridge was an Australian prison built in 1850 in Coburg, Victoria. The first prisoners arrived in 1851. The prison officially closed on 1 May 1997....
by the condemned child rapist David Bennett. It was used for all 10 Pentridge hangings. After Victoria abolished capital punishment in 1975 the beam was removed and put into storage. It was reinstalled at the Old Melbourne Gaol in August 2000.
Queensland
Queensland was the first state to abolish the death penalty in 1922. This came nearly a decade after Ernest AustinErnest Austin (murderer)
Ernest Austin was the last person executed by Queensland.Austin was convicted of raping and murdering 12-year-old Ivy Mitchell at Cedar Creek road near Samford...
was hanged for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl.
Only one woman was hanged, Ellen Thompson, who was convicted of murdering her husband with the help of her lover.
Western Australia
In Western AustraliaWestern Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, between 1829 and 1855, hangings were performed at a variety of places, even the site of the offence and this changed in 1856, with the construction of the Perth Gaol
Perth Gaol
The Perth Gaol was a gaol built in Perth, Western Australia between 1854 and 1856 to house convicts and other prisoners. It operated until March 1888 when the last prisoner was transferred to Fremantle Prison...
, which became the main execution site in the state. John Gavin was the first European settler to be legally executed in Western Australia. He was executed for murder in 1844 at the age of fifteen. The last change in site was in 1888, when what had been the Imperial Convict Establishment at Fremantle was first used for hangings. It had been renamed the Fremantle Prison in 1886 and handed over to the colonial government to be a major high security prison; 43 men (and 1 woman, Martha Rendell
Martha Rendell
Martha Rendell was the last of three women to be hanged in Western Australia. She was convicted of murdering her de facto husband's son, Arthur Morris, in 1908. She was also suspected of killing his two daughters, Annie and Olive by swabbing their throats with hydrochloric acid...
) were to be hanged there.
Hangings would take place at 8 a.m. on Monday mornings. The condemned would be woken at 5:30 a.m., showered, transferred to the condemned cell, given the services of a spiritual adviser, and offered a glass of whiskey. On leaving the condemned cell they would be taken to the gallows; usually only 60 seconds elapsed before the trap was pulled.
The last execution was that of Eric Edgar Cooke
Eric Edgar Cooke
Eric Edgar Cooke nicknamed The Night Caller was an Australian serial killer. From 1959 to 1963, he terrorised the city of Perth, Western Australia, by committing 22 violent crimes, eight of which resulted in deaths....
on 26 October 1964 at Fremantle Prison
Fremantle Prison
Fremantle Prison is a former Australian prison located in The Terrace, Fremantle, in Western Australia. The site includes the prison, gatehouse, perimeter walls, cottages, tunnels, and prisoner art...
. Cooke had been convicted on one count of murder, but evidence and his confessions suggested he had committed many more. The last sentence of death in Western Australia (indeed anywhere in Australia) was passed in 1984, but the female killer (Brenda Hodge
Brenda Hodge
Brenda Hodge was the last person to be sentenced to death in Australia. She was found guilty of murdering her de-facto partner in 1984 and was sentenced to death. Her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.-Early life:...
) in question had her sentence commuted to imprisonment for life, as was customary by this stage.
Capital punishment was formally removed from the statutes of the state with the passage of the Acts Amendment (Abolition of Capital Punishment) Act 1984.
South Australia
The Adelaide GaolAdelaide Gaol
Adelaide Gaol was an Australian prison located in Thebarton, South Australia, Australia. The gaol was the first permanent one in South Australia and operated from 1841 until 1988...
was the site of fifty hangings from Pitti Miltinda on 7 June 1861 to Glen Sabre Valance
Glen Sabre Valance
Glen Sabre Valance, age 21, was hanged in Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Richard Strang. He was the last man executed in South Australia on 24 November 1964....
, murderer and rapist, on 24 November 1964 and three executions also occurred at Mount Gambier Gaol
Mount Gambier Gaol
There are two correctional institutions with the name Mount Gambier.* Mount Gambier Gaol, the original gaol, which is now a museum.* Mount Gambier Prison, the privately run facility, built in the 1990s....
.
Elizabeth Woolcock
Elizabeth Woolcock
Elizabeth Woolcock was born Elizabeth Lillian Oliver in Burra Burra and was hanged in Adelaide Gaol for the murder of her husband Thomas Woolcock by mercury poisoning. She remains the only woman ever executed in South Australia and is buried between the outer and inner prison walls...
, the only woman ever to have been executed under South Australian law, was hanged on 30 December 1873. Her body was not released to the family and was buried between the inner and outer walls of the prison, identified by a number and the date of the execution.
In 1976, the Criminal Law Consolidation Act was modified so that the death sentence was changed to life imprisonment.
Tasmania
In the early days of colonial rule Tasmania, then known as Van Diemen's LandVan Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land was the original name used by most Europeans for the island of Tasmania, now part of Australia. The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to land on the shores of Tasmania...
, was the site of penal transports. Mary McLauchlan was convicted in 1830 for infanticide, she was sentenced to both death and dissection. She was the first woman to be hanged in Tasmania.
The last execution was in 1946, that of serial murderer and rapist Frederick Thompson. The death penalty was abolished in 1968.
Australian Capital Territory
No executions were carried out in the Australian Capital Territory, where federal legislation abolished capital punishment in 1973.Northern Territory
Aborigines who lived in the Northern Territory came under the European law of Australia even though they did not have any contact with the government.There were several outcries over Aborigines receiving mandatory death sentences for murder, leading to the passage of the Crimes Ordinance 1934 which allowed for discretionary sentences when both the accused and the victim were Aboriginal.
The last execution was a double hanging in 1952, and the death penalty was abolished 1973.
Public opinion
AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
banned capital punishment on a state-by-state basis through the 20th century, and today, the practice is widely condemned by most Australians. However, there have been recent cases where Australians contradicted this, such as the case of the Bali bombers, in which then Prime Minister of Australia
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
, stated Australians expected their execution by Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
.
On occasion the issue of Capital Punishment is published in the media or is subject to media and public support and scrutiny. Most occasions where Capital Punishment is brought up in the media, it is regarding current cases of intense media coverage regarding murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
and in extreme circumstances such as terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
. In various occasions, the media and public express support for Capital Punishment for the most heinous of crimes committed against humanity including mass murder
Mass murder
Mass murder is the act of murdering a large number of people , typically at the same time or over a relatively short period of time. According to the FBI, mass murder is defined as four or more murders occurring during a particular event with no cooling-off period between the murders...
such as in the cases of Backpacker Murders
Backpacker murders
The Backpacker Murders is a name given to serial killings that occurred in New South Wales, Australia during the 1990s. The bodies of seven missing young people aged 19 to 22 were discovered partly buried in the Belanglo State Forest, south west of the New South Wales town of Berrima...
and the Port Arthur massacre. Both the Milat Backpacker murders
Backpacker murders
The Backpacker Murders is a name given to serial killings that occurred in New South Wales, Australia during the 1990s. The bodies of seven missing young people aged 19 to 22 were discovered partly buried in the Belanglo State Forest, south west of the New South Wales town of Berrima...
and the Bryant Port Arthur massacre killed a combined 42 people and stirred strong emotions as to whether or not to reintroduce the Death Penalty. However, no person of significant stature or influence has advocated the Death Penalty for quite some time since the last execution in 1967.
The death penalty was completely abolished and outlawed in Australia with the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Torture Prohibition and Death Penalty Abolition) Bill 2009 passing the Australian Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
without amendments in March 2010. There are no plans to restore capital punishment in Australia.
The below table reflects the results of a public opinion survey conducted by the Roy Morgan institute where responders were given the following question: "In your opinion, should the penalty for murder be death or imprisonment?" The surveyors conducted the poll for people from 14 and onwards in age with around 687 people completing the survey for publication in December 2009. The results of the poll are as follows:
| Date | Death Penalty % | Imprisonment % | Undecided % |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 1947 | 67 | 24 | 9 |
| February 1953 | 68 | 24 | 8 |
| April 1962 | 53 | 37 | 10 |
| November 1975 | 40 | 43 | 17 |
| October 1980 | 43 | 40 | 17 |
| January 1986 | 43 | 41 | 16 |
| July 1986 | 44 | 40 | 16 |
| July 1987 | 49 | 37 | 14 |
| February 1989 | 52 | 34 | 14 |
| February 1990 | 53 | 35 | 12 |
| June 1990 | 51 | 35 | 14 |
| May 1992 | 46 | 39 | 15 |
| May. 1993 | 54 | 36 | 10 |
| August 1995 | 53 | 36 | 11 |
| November 2005 | 27 | 66 | 7 |
| August 2005 | 25 | 69 | 6 |
| December 2009 | 23 | 64 | 13 |
| Total | 791 | 700 | 209 |
- Source: Roy Morgan Research