Frankston North, Victoria
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Frankston North is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its Local Government Area is the City of Frankston. It is a working class suburb and nicknamed the Pines because of its proximity to a nature reserve area commonly referred to by locals as 'The Bush.' Pines Flora & Fauna reserve. In fact despite the nickname The Pines, there are no longer any pine trees in The Pines because all non-native fauna in the region was destroyed in the early 1990s in an attempt to preserve the native flora and fauna in the area.
Frankston North's significance in politics
Frankston North's claim of local and state significance is that it takes credit for the demise of the Kennett era. In 1998 Cherie Flynn of the Victorian Liberal Party lost the Frankston East by-election thus giving a State majority to the Labor Party and spelling the defeat of then Premier Jeff Kennett. The right-wing Kennett had earlier in the decade shut down the only state high school in the suburb. When the surprising news came through of Kennett's defeat, he was in The Pines with Flynn in a Liberal Party campaigning centre on Forest Drive. When he tried to flee the scene he gave camera crews a chance to capture his embarrassing defeat and beam it to TV stations nationwide.
The associate editor of the state daily paper (The Age), Shaun Carney pointed out that both the Federal candidates in the local electorate attended Monterey High School. Helen Constas & Bruce Billson.