He moved to the Eastern Goldfields in 1935 and worked as a miner for several years, later serving in the Australian Army during World War II where he was wounded on the Greek campaign.

[1] His maternal grandfather was Samuel Mitchell, a Cornish immigrant who was a pioneer of the mining industry in Western Australia and served in both houses of state parliament.

[2] His father's grandfather George Brand was transported to Western Australia on the convict ship Stag in 1855,[3] subsequently settling in the Greenough area.

[5] He left school at 14 to work on the farm, and at Mullewa became secretary of the local branch of the Primary Producers' Association.

[1] In 1935, Brand moved to Kalgoorlie and worked at the Golden Horseshoe Mine, as a truck driver, treatment hand, filter specialist and shift boss.

[1] In February 1938 he discovered the body of a co-worker, Walter Veitch, who had been fatally electrocuted while working alone at a pumping station.

He was re-mobilised in September, as an instructor with the 7th Battalion, Volunteer Defence Corps, in Geraldton and was promoted to Warrant Officer in January 1943.

Brand won the seat for the Liberal Party in a by-election that year, defeating Newton's brother by a narrow margin.

In October 1949, Ross McLarty became Premier and Brand entered the Ministry as Minister for Housing, Forests and Local Government.

The mining of large bauxite deposits in the Darling Scarp also commenced, along with expansion of mineral processing at Kwinana and the South West.

The mining-pastoral boom of the 1960s played a big part in ensuring for Brand's government four successive electoral victories over the ALP opposition (led by Hawke until 1967, and by Tonkin from 1967 to 1971).

[10] The rapid growth of the Perth metropolitan area, and the strain this put on essential services, eroded the government's popularity, especially after 1969.

In addition, Brand's relations with the federal Liberal Party worsened after the retirement of Sir Robert Menzies in 1966.

While Brand's administration suffered from a series of controversies relating to environmental, heritage, Aboriginal and housing issues, the impact of production quotas for wheat, imposed by Prime Minister Sir John Gorton led to open conflict with the federal Liberal Party.