It centred on the town of Waratah in western Tasmania.
The seat was created in a redistribution ahead of the 1897 election from the southern part of the Wellington electorate, which had been a two-member seat until the election.
The seat was abolished when the Tasmanian parliament adopted the Hare-Clark electoral model in 1909.
Its final member, John Earle, successfully stood for the multi-member seat of Franklin and, shortly after the 1909 election, became Tasmania's the first Labor premier, albeit of an unstable minority government which lasted a week.
He regained the Premiership in 1914 and held it for two years, before gaining a seat in the Australian Senate.