Documenting Democracy
Australia's Story

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The quickest way to find out election results was to wait outside newspaper offices

When the quickest way to find out election results was to wait outside newspaper offices where the results were posted on scoreboards, crowds gathered to watch electoral landslides in scenes like this one in Hobart on election night, 2 April 1903. This was the first post-Federation election for the reduced State Parliament, and the first Tasmanian election without the proportional representation (Hare-Clark) system since Andrew Inglis Clark had introduced it for the Hobart and Launceston seats in 1896. In 1907 Tasmania re-introduced the Hare-Clark system, which is also used in the Australian Senate. This photograph was published in the Tasmanian Mail on 11 April 1903.