The previous electoral redistribution was undertaken in 1875 for the 1875–1876 election. In the six years since, New Zealand'sEuropean population had increased by 65%. In the 1881 electoral redistribution, the House of Representatives increased the number of European representatives to 91. The number of Māori electorates was held at four. The House further decided that electorates should not have more than one representative, which led to 35 new electorates being formed, including Dunedin Central, and two electorates that had previously been abolished to be recreated. This necessitated a major disruption to existing boundaries.
History
, who at the had unsuccessfully contested the electorate, was the first representative. At the, Bracken was defeated by James Benn Bradshaw, but Bradshaw died during the term and Bracken won the resulting by-election. He served for the rest of the term and then retired. The was contested by Edward Cargill and Frederick Fitchett, and won by Fitchett. Fitchett served one term and then retired. The electorate was abolished at the end of the term in 1890. When the electorate was recreated for the, the election was won by John A. Millar of the Liberal Party, who had represented various Dunedin electorates since. At the next election in, Millar successfully stood in the Dunedin West electorate. The Dunedin Central electorate was won by James Frederick Arnold in that year, who was also of the Liberal Party. At the, Arnold was beaten by Charles Statham. Statham was a representative of the Reform Party, but became an Independent in 1919. Statham resigned after the, after irregularities in the counting of the vote turned a 12-vote lead for his competitor Jim Munro into a 12-vote loss. Munro, who represented the United Labour Party, and Statham contested the resulting, which was narrowly won by Statham. He continued to represent the electorate until his retirement in 1935. Peter Neilson of the Labour Party won the. He served for three terms before he retired in 1946. He was succeeded by Labour's Phil Connolly in the, who served six terms before he retired. Brian MacDonell of the Labour Party won the and served seven terms until 1984, when the electorate was abolished. MacDonell then failed to get selected by Labour for the Dunedin West electorate and then stood as an Independent, but he was unsuccessful.
Members of Parliament
The electorate was represented by nine Members of Parliament: Key
