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Research dossier · History & Society

1977 Cunningham by-election

Australian federal by-election

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ5194338 ↗
Source-derived summary

A by-election was held for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Cunningham on 15 October 1977. It was triggered by the death of former Whitlam Government minister and Labor MP Rex Connor.

The by-election was won by Labor candidate Stewart West.

Results

Rex Connor (Labor) died.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “1977 Cunningham by-election” as australian federal by-election. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cunningham, by-election and Australian.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1977—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Cunningham, by-election and Australian providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “1977 Cunningham by-election”, the useful work is to connect “australian federal by-election” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5194338. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1977.

Critical limits

Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “1977 Cunningham by-election”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow 1977 Cunningham by-election primary sources, 1977 Cunningham by-election archive and Cunningham research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “1977 Cunningham by-election”?
  2. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “1977 Cunningham by-election” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.