Electoral district of Balkatta

Balcatta Western Australia—Legislative Assembly
Location of Balcatta (dark green) in the Perth metropolitan area
State	Western Australia
Dates current	1904–1911; 1962–1974; 1977–1996; 2005–present
MP	David Michael
Party	Australian Labor Party
Namesake	Balcatta
Electors	27,946 (2017)
Area	21 km2 (8.1 sq mi)
Demographic	North Metropolitan

Balcatta is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia.

The district is based in Perth's northern suburbs. A historically safe Labor seat, it was held by the Liberal Party for one term between 2013 and 2017.

Balcatta is located in Perth's northern suburbs. It is a north-to-south elongated electorate, squeezed in between the Mitchell Freeway to the west and Wanneroo Road to the east. The district includes the suburbs of Balcatta, Stirling, Tuart Hill and Joondanna as well as western and southern portions of Hamersley and all parts of Osborne Park east of the Mitchell Freeway.

Balcatta has had several incarnations as an electoral district. It has been held by the Labor Party on every occasion, other than a single term from 1905 to 1908.

The first incarnation of the seat, established by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1904, was spelt "Balkatta" in some sources and "Balcatta" in others. 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. John Veryard held the seat for a single term, losing it to Gill in 1908. The seat was then abolished by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1911, with most of it going to form the new seat of Leederville, which Gill subsequently won.