The term was the first to be conducted under the Constitution Acts Amendment Act (No.2) 1963 (No.72 of 1963), which abolished the 10 three-member provinces which had existed almost unaltered since 1900 and replaced them with 15 new two-member provinces, while abolishing the practice of having separate Legislative Council elections in May of every even-numbered year. Hence, members whose terms expired on 21 May 1971 were elected at the 1965 state general election.
The chamber as a result had 30 seats made up of 15 provinces each electing two members, on a system of rotation whereby one-half of the members would retire every three years.
1 On 3 September 1967, West Province (formerly Midland Province) Country MLC Ray Jones died. Country Party candidate Fred White won the resulting by-election on 21 October 1967.
Sources
Black, David (1991). Legislative Council of Western Australia : membership register, electoral law and statistics, 1890-1989. Perth: Parliamentary History Project. ISBN0-7309-3641-4. (especially p. 6)