At the time it was abolished, Murdoch was bounded by the Canning River to the northeast, Fifth and Karel Avenues to the east, Hope Road to the south, North Lake Road to the west, and Leach Highway to the northwest, and including an additional section between Riseley Street, Blue Gum Reserve and Bull Creek.
[2] The seat of Murdoch was established on 9 June 1976 in a redistribution under the Electoral Districts Act 1947,[3] and was first contested at the 1977 state election.
While initially thought to be reasonably safe for the Labor party, major demographic change in the mid-1970s resulting from the creation of suburbs such as Bull Creek and Leeming on what had previously been swampy agricultural land, resulted in a relatively safe Liberal seat by the time of the election,[4] and Barry MacKinnon easily won the seat.
However, following his death on 17 January 2008, a by-election was held on 23 February 2008 at which University of Western Australia law lecturer Christian Porter was elected.
Murdoch was abolished at the 2007 distribution, taking effect at the 2008 election, largely replaced by the new seat of Bateman.