state in the world to give women the vote and the first to give women the right to be elected to parliament. After federation South Australia became a state of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, following a vote to federate with the other British colonies of Australia. One consequence of federation was that the powers of the Parliament of South Australia were limited by the provisions of the Constitution of Australia, with some powers transferred to the federal parliament. Another consequence was a bit of a "brain drain", with many of the parliament's most prominent members moving to the federal sphere. From 1857 to 1933, the House of Assembly was elected from multi-member districts, commonly known as "seats," with each district returning between one and six members. The size of the Assembly grew during the colonial period—36 members from 1857 to 1875, 46 members from 1875 to 1884, 52 members from 1884 to 1890, 54 members from 1890 to 1902. In response to the Federation of Australia, the House of Assembly was reduced to 42 members from 1902 to 1912 and 40 members from 1912 to 1915. From 1915 to 1938 the size was again increased to 46 members. The Legislative Council half of the "New Parliament House" was finally completed in 1939, 50 years after the House of Assembly portion of the building. Playmander years One distinctive aspect of the history of the South Australian parliament was the "Playmander", a gerrymandering system that instituted a pro-rural electoral malapportionment introduced by the incumbent Liberal and Country League (LCL) government, and in place for 32 years from 1936 to 1968. The already entrenched rural overweighting was increased to a 2:1 ratio, the number of MPs was reduced to 39 and the multi-member seats were abandoned for single-member seats. The House of Assembly now consisted of 26 low-population rural seats, which due to population shifts, were holding up to a 10-to-1 advantage over the 13 high-population metropolitan seats, even though rural seats contained only a third of South Australia's population. At the peak of the malapportionment in 1968, the rural seat of Frome had 4,500 formal votes, while the metropolitan seat of Enfield had 42,000 formal votes. Labor managed to win enough parliamentary seats to form government just once during the Playmander against the odds − in 1965. Labor won comprehensive majorities of the statewide two-party vote whilst failing to form