A general election was held in the state of 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...

, 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...

, on Saturday 7 October 1978. The result was the "Wranslide": a landslide victory

Landslide victory

In politics, a landslide victory is the victory of a candidate or political party by an overwhelming margin in an election...

 for the Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 under Neville Wran

Neville Wran

Neville Kenneth Wran, AC, CNZM, QC was the Premier of New South Wales from 1976 until 1986. He was National President of the Australian Labor Party from 1980 to 1986 and Chairman of both the Lionel Murphy Foundation and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation from 1986...

.

It is notable for being so successful for the Labor Party that it managed to win seats from the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Coleman

Peter Coleman

William Peter Coleman is an Australian writer/journalist, former politician and Minister of the Crown in the cabinets of Tom Lewis and Sir Eric Willis. Following Willis' resignation as leader he was made Leader of the New South Wales Opposition...

 and many other prominent Shadow Ministers. Labor also won seats on the North Shore and Northern Beaches of Sydney which were considered Coalition heartland such as Willoughby

Electoral district of Willoughby

Willoughby is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is represented by Gladys Berejiklian of the Liberal Party of Australia.-History:...

 (contested for the Liberal Party by Nick Greiner

Nick Greiner

Nicholas "Nick" Frank Hugo Greiner AC, is an Australian businessman and former politician. He was the 37th Premier New South Wales from 1988 to 1992. He was Leader of the New South Wales Division of the Liberal Party from 1983 to 1992 and Leader of the Opposition from 1983 to 1988. He is married...

 who later became Premier), Manly

Electoral district of Manly

Manly is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It has historically tended to be a Liberal-leaning seat. It is currently represented by the Treasurer of New South Wales, Mike Baird of the Liberal Party of Australia.-Members for Manly:-Election...

, Wakehurst

Electoral district of Wakehurst

Wakehurst is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is represented by Brad Hazzard of the Liberal Party of Australia.-Members for Wakehurst:-Election results:...

 and Cronulla

Electoral district of Cronulla

Cronulla is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is represented by Mark Speakman of the Liberal Party of Australia.-Members for Cronulla:-Election results:...

. These seats had never been won by Labor before this election.

The state's first elections to the New South Wales Legislative Council

New South Wales Legislative Council

The New South Wales Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of New South Wales in Australia. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney. The Assembly is referred to as the lower house and the Council as...

, the state parliament's upper house, were held simultaneously. Voters had approved a referendum to introduce a directly elected council in June of that year.

The election was also the first in the state to be contested by the Australian Democrats

Australian Democrats

The Australian Democrats is an Australian political party espousing a socially liberal ideology. It was formed in 1977, by a merger of the Australia Party and the New LM, after principals of those minor parties secured the commitment of former Liberal minister Don Chipp, as a high profile leader...

.

Labor continued to campaign heavily on the strengths of Wran himself, with the slogan "Wran's our man".

Key dates

Date	Event
12 September 1978	The Legislative Assembly was dissolved, and writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.
18 September 1978	Nominations for candidates for the election closed at noon.
7 October 1978	Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
19 October 1978	The second Wran Ministry was constituted.
3 November 1978	The writ was returned and the results formally declared.
7 November 1978	Parliament resumed for business.

Legislative Assembly

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Legislative Council

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The final 2 party preferred result was 60.7% for Labor and 39.3% for the Coalition, making it one of the biggest landslide victories in New South Wales's electoral history. In 2PP terms it was a 9.1% swing to Labor from the Coalition. This was beaten by the Coalition's result of 64.2% and 35.8% for Labor in the 2011 election.