The electorate of Monaro in Southern NSW was created in 1856 for the First Parliament under the name Moneroo which derives from an indigenous name for the area, now spelt Monaro. It is the home of the Ngarigo, Ngambri, and Ngunnawal people.  

Monaro covers nearly 20,500 square km and 60,000 electors.  It runs from the Victorian border in the South along the Great Dividing Range to Braidwood, Bungendore and Lake George in the North.

It spans the naturally treeless plains which have a long history of indigenous culture and farming, right up into the unique Australian Alpine region with its flora and fauna found nowhere else on the planet. Home to Jindabyne which is the gateway to the famous Kosciuszko National Park, providing outdoor recreation for all Australians year-round through winter sports, fishing, hiking, camping, and mountain biking.

Queanbeyan is the home of Steve Whan and is the industrial and economic heart of the electorate. A rapidly growing centre on the eastern border of the ACT which includes the towns of Jerrabomberra and Googong. The Palerang region lies to the east and includes Bungendore and Braidwood, which was the first NSW town to be heritage listed.

Cooma is the crossroads of the electorate. It’s the portal to the Sapphire Coast in the east, Snowy Mountains to the south, Snowy Valleys in the west, and Queanbeyan-Palerang region to the north. Cooma was one of Australia’s first multicultural communities with an influx of migrants settling in the community as they built the Snowy Scheme. 

The region is home to the Snowy Hydro scheme which provides clean power to more than one million Australian homes and businesses, with more on the way through Snowy 2.0. 

It’s a diverse electorate with employment coming from the public sector, service industries, tourism, agriculture and small business.