[3] The seat was created for the 1984 federal election from parts of the Divisions of Fremantle and Canning to cater for substantial population growth in the Rockingham–Mandurah coastal area south of the state capital Perth.

Initially it included country areas to the south and southeast, such as agricultural regions in the Shires of Murray, Waroona and Harvey and the mining town of Collie, and was significantly more marginal for Labor—made abundantly clear by Labor's near-defeat in the seat at the 1996 federal election.

Wendy Fatin had been the member for Canning for a single term prior to the creation of Brand, and went on to win in four successive elections, becoming Minister for the Arts in the early 1990s.

Upon her retirement from politics, Kim Beazley, who had been Minister for Defence in the Hawke government until 1990 and had other portfolios before becoming Deputy Prime Minister to Paul Keating in 1995, was preselected for the seat following 16 years as member for the marginal seat of Swan which polling suggested the party was certain to lose.

The redistribution for the 2010 federal election made the seat slightly more secure for Labor by transferring some 12,000 Mandurah voters to the neighbouring Division of Canning.