Dissent and disaffection in the mega mansions and battler suburbs of Boothby

Tradies Tim Branford and Daniel Cox are eating calamari and chips on a lunch break at the Brighton jetty, a scattering of hopeful seagulls watching on beneath the arch of remembrance.

Branford, a 24-year-old boilermaker, says he is not sure how he is going to vote at the federal election, but he is not impressed with either leader.

Cox chimes in, agreeing that Morrison is unpopular, but says he still plans to vote for him.

Nearby, rocking a pram with her newborn daughter, 33-year-old Nadine from Edwardstown does remember the unlikable stuff, still angry that the pandemic experience kept her separated from family in Denmark.

For her at this election, it is anyone but Morrison.

There are the mega mansions of Springfield, battler suburbs in the middle, comfortable coastal suburbs, and the Greens voting patch of Blackwood. Boothby is a snapshot of Australian suburbia in all its varied glory.

The seat has always been just out of reach for Labor, having been in conservative hands since the 1940s.

With the incumbent Nicolle Flint retiring, Labor is throwing everything at winning the seat and polling suggests its candidate, Louise Miller-Frost, is in line for victory.

But the Liberals are not yet writing the seat off, and hope the moderate-aligned Rachel Swift can win back some of the small-l liberals who were put off Flint after a fierce campaign at the last election against her conservative credentials, including on climate change and her support for Peter Dutton.

But will she switch her vote to Albanese?

She says she was undecided a couple of months ago, but is now leaning towards the independent candidate Jo Dyer, with preferences going to Labor.

Despite the narrow 1.4% margin in the seat, many voters spoken to by Guardian Australia are still undecided, or looking to minor parties for something different.

Kristy Knight, 37, from Glengowrie, is one of those who has turned off the major parties after she lost her job by refusing to get vaccinated during the pandemic.

While the anti-Morrison sentiment is prevalent throughout the seat, there is not a sense that the tide has completely gone out on the Liberal party, and it is difficult to find voters who voted Liberal last time who are switching to Labor.

Arwin Caras, an IT engineer from St Marys, says he has decided to stick with Morrison, whom he supported in 2019.

Roger Koschade, a lifelong Labor voter, is considering voting Liberal for the first time, but is also still undecided.

Labor candidate Louise Miller-Frost, a former chief executive of St Vincent de Paul, is door-knocking in Blackwood, down the road from the Waite reserve, where the opposition is promising $1.6m for a playground and park upgrade.

Swift, a medical researcher and Rhodes scholar, acknowledges there is frustration within the community, but says she has heard negatives and positives about both Morrison and Albanese.

In a sign of the fierce contest for the seat, Trott says her letterbox has been bursting at the seams with campaign material, much of it negative.

Trott says she will most likely make up her mind when she picks up the pencil in the booth on election day.