It was created in 2024 as part of a redistribution, and is expected to come into effect at the 2025 federal election.

[2] Bullwinkel will incorporate parts of the divisions of Hasluck, Durack, Swan, O'Connor, and Canning.

[3] The seat is named after Vivian Bullwinkel, an Australian Army nurse during the Second World War who was the sole surviving nurse of the Bangka Island Massacre.

[4][5] A number of objections were received to adoption of the name, as Bullwinkel had only a tenuous connection with Western Australia and no association with the area covered by the new division, and a local nurse from the Bangka Massacre named Alma Beard was otherwise unrecognised.

The AEC rejected the objections on the grounds that the naming of electorates was to recognise the "extent of a person's contribution to the country as a whole".