Thirty-one polling stations across Australia have picked the winner of the last nine consecutive federal elections on a two-party preferred basis, covering the period between 1996 and 2019.
Known as 'bellwether' seats, t he word refers to an historical practice of placing a bell around the neck of a castrated ram - a wether - leading a flock of sheep.
The 31 current 'bellwether' seats have been identified from an analysis of Australian Electoral Commission data conducted by SBS, which has located 11 such polling stations in Victoria, nine in New South Wales, six in Queensland, four in South Australia, and one in the Northern Territory.
Five of those polling stations are located in the Victorian seat of Chisholm in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, which is held by Liberal MP Gladys Liu on a margin of 0.5 per cent.
The electorate of Lindsay in western Sydney covers most of the City of Penrith and has also been held by the government of the day in the past nine elections in a row.
