He was the Labor candidate for the seat of Flinders, based on the outer south eastern fringe of Melbourne.
Only months earlier Labor had failed to win Flinders, with a different candidate, Rogan Ward, at a by-election held in December 1982.
Following a redistribution of electoral boundaries in 1984, Chynoweth opted to contest the seat of Dunkley.
However, he was to make a comeback to politics by winning back the seat of Dunkley at the 1993 federal election.
[4] Chynoweth re-contested the redistributed Dunkley but lost to Liberal candidate Bruce Billson.