Alfred Cove was created at the 1994 redistribution, created out of the northern riverside portions of the former seats of Applecross and part of Melville,[1] and was first contested in the 1996 election at which Liberal member and Court government minister Doug Shave, who had previously represented Melville since the 1989 election, was successful.
As Minister for Fair Trading, Shave was criticised over his department's handling of the so-called finance brokers' scandal in 1999–2000, where thousands of elderly investors faced losses estimated at over A$200 million.
Woollard did not contest the 2013 election and, as expected, Dean Nalder easily reclaimed the seat for the Liberals.
[7] Alfred Cove was ranked amongst the highest electorates by socio-economic status in Western Australia according to the SEIFA indexes, with high scores on educational and employment opportunity.
At the 2006 census, the median individual income in the Alfred Cove electorate, based on its 2005 boundaries, was $577 per week compared to $513 in the Perth metropolitan area, and the median weekly household income was $1,166 compared to $1,086 across Perth, although these figures did not reflect retirees with high asset bases.