The electorate covers Invercargill city and the surrounding rural area, including Stewart Island / Rakiura. In 1996 a boundary redistribution resulted in the abolition of the Awarua electorate and merged with Invercargill following re-drawing of boundaries due to the introduction of mixed-member proportional voting. Minor but steady population decline in the Southland region has generally resulted in Invercargill expanding northwards. The 2013 redistribution, however, has left Invercargill unchanged. The 2020 redistribution added a large area around Clifden and Tuatapere.
History
The electorate was established in 1866 when it separated from the Wallace electorate. The first representative was William Wood, who won the. Wood retired at the end of the parliamentary term in 1870. William Henderson Calder succeeded Wood in the and he resigned in March 1873. The resulting was won by John Cuthbertson, who served until the end of the parliamentary term in 1875. Cuthbertson was defeated by George Lumsden in the 1875 election. Lumsden resigned in June 1878, which caused the. Henry Feldwick was the successful candidate and he commenced his first of three terms for the electorate. At the, Feldwick was defeated by James Walker Bain, who retired at the end of the parliamentary term in 1881. At the, Feldwick was again the successful candidate, only to be defeated again at the, on that occasion by Joseph Hatch. At the, Feldwick defeated Hatch and commenced his third and final term for the Invercargill electorate, serving until the end of the parliamentary term in 1890. James Whyte Kelly defeated Feldwick in the. Kelly became a member of the Liberal Party and served for three parliamentary terms, but broke away from the Liberal Party and became an Independent Liberal in 1895. For the, the Josiah Hanan of the Liberal Party challenged Kelly, with Hanan being successful. Hanan served the electorate until 1925, when he retired. The was narrowly won by the former Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward standing for the Liberal Party, who beat James Hargest of the Reform Party with 4957 votes to 4798; a third contender, Patrick Hickey, stood for the Labour Party. Until 1919, Ward had for many years represented Awarua. Ward, a former leader of the Liberal Party, contested the election under the "Liberal" label, despite the fact that the remnants of the Liberal Party were now calling themselves by different names. In 1928, Ward helped form the United Party and won the. He died on 8 July 1930, which caused the won by his son Vincent Ward, who retired at the end of the parliamentary term in 1931. Vincent Ward was succeeded by James Hargest in the. At the end of the parliamentary term in 1935, Hargest successfully contested the Awarua electorate. He was succeeded in the Invercargill electorate by William Denham of the Labour Party, who held the electorate for three terms from 1935 until his defeat in the by Ralph Hanan of the National Party. Hanan was re-elected seven times and died in office on 24 July 1969; the need to hold a by-election before the general election on 29 November was avoided by a special act, the . The successful candidate in the 1969 general election was John Chewings, who was defeated at the end of the parliamentary term at the by Labour's J. B. Munro. At the next election in 1975, Munro was in turn beaten by National's Norman Jones. Jones retired at the end of his fourth term in August 1987 and died shortly thereafter on 19 November. Jones was succeeded by National's Rob Munro in the. Munro served two parliamentary terms before being beaten by Labour's Mark Peck in the. Peck retired after four parliamentary terms in 2005 and was succeeded by National's Eric Roy in the. Roy retired after three parliamentary terms and was succeeded in by Sarah Dowie.
Members of Parliament elected from party lists in elections where that person also unsuccessfully contested the Invercargill electorate. Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and ended at general elections.
