A by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

was held for the Australian House of Representatives

Australian House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....

 seat of Parramatta

Division of Parramatta

The Division of Parramatta is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was created in 1900 and was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. It is named for the locality of Parramatta. The name Parramatta has been sourced to an Aboriginal...

on 22 September 1973. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of former Liberal Party

Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

 long servng Attorney General and Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Honourable (and later Sir) Nigel Bowen

Nigel Bowen

Sir Nigel Hubert Bowen, AC, KBE was an Australian politician and judge.-Biography:Bowen was born in a log cabin in Summerland, British Columbia, Canada, of Welsh and English parents. He came to Australia as a boy and was educated for two years in England and later at The King's School in Parramatta...

 who accepted an appointment to the NSW Court of Appeal.

The seat was retained by the Liberal Party, with Philip Ruddock

Philip Ruddock

Philip Maxwell Ruddock is an Australian politician who is currently a member of the House of Representatives representing the Division of Berowra, New South Wales, for the Liberal Party of Australia...

 defeating the Parramatta City Council Mayor, Barry Wilde

Barry Wilde

Barry Charles Wilde was an Australian politician. He served as an Australian Labor Party Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1976 until 1988, representing the electorate of Parramatta....

, who contested the seat for the 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...

. Ten other candidates from minor parties contested the seat.

Results