The district includes the suburbs of Balcatta, Stirling, Tuart Hill, Joondanna and Westminster as well as all parts of Osborne Park east of the Mitchell Freeway.

It extended all the way from modern-day Sorrento to Herdsman Lake, and was won by Labor's Frederick Gill at its first election in August 1904.

However, the minority government of which he was part, referred to in the press as a "Mark-Time Ministry", collapsed a year later, and Gill and a number of other Labor members lost their seats in the 1905 election to Ministerial candidates.

A new district of Balcatta was created ahead of the 1962 state election, and was won by Labor's Herb Graham, who for the previous 19 years had been the member for East Perth, which was abolished at the redistribution.

At the resulting by-election held on 28 July 1973, which was watched by many observers both as an indication of Premier Tonkin's two-year-old Labor government's fortunes with the electorate as well as the more practical matter of whether it would retain its one-seat majority in parliament, former television news reporter and Labor candidate Brian Burke won by 30 votes on preferences, having trailed Liberal candidate Neil Beck on the primary vote.