[3] For many years it was accessible only by track or boat and functioned as a small coastal village, and tourism and fishing were the main occupations.

The sprawl of housing development extending northwards from Perth reached Burns Beach in the early- to mid-1990s with the growth of Joondalup as a regional centre and the construction of the suburbs of Currambine and Kinross.

Burn's Beach's ocean facing parking bays are a popular destination for residents seeking a pleasant spot to watch the sun set in the summer, or the waves pound through in winter.

[4] Tamala Park, a bushland buffer to the north, separates Burns Beach and Kinross from the Mindarie-Clarkson urban region.

At the 2001 census, Burns Beach had a population of 225 people living in 90 dwellings, with a median age of 39 years (among the oldest in the northern suburbs).