The electorate lies in the extreme southwest of Queensland, running along the western part of the border with New South Wales.

It includes the large town of Dalby, as well as the rural centres of Surat, Roma, Tara, Charleville, Augathella, St George and Cunnamulla.

[2] Warrego was, as with the rest of the state, held by independents and loose groupings of members around the government of the day until the first years of the twentieth century, when the partisan system took hold.

The decline of the rural working class gradually changed the demographics of the electorate, however, and in 1974 it was swept up in a massive landslide for the National Party.

It remained a marginal National seat for the next two decades, even at the height of the popularity of the Bjelke-Petersen government.