Created in 1976 following the electoral redistribution which took effect from the 1977 election, the electoral district was named after Sir John Morphett (1809–1892) who lived in the Morphettville area and was speaker of the enlarged Legislative Council in 1851, and president of the elected Legislative Council from 1865 to 1873.
On its creation, Morphett was a notionally marginal Liberal electorate. However, it was won by the DunstanLabor government in its landslide 1977 election victory, and was Labor's only marginal seat. The Liberals won it at the 1979 election and have held it ever since. The Liberal hold on the electorate was considerably strengthened when the safe Liberal seat of Glenelg was abolished at the 1983 redistribution and largely merged with Morphett.
