However, in 1969, the Labor candidate, John Conn, employing his early version of the later famous 'It's Time' slogan, achieved a record swing in excess of 19% to almost unseat the long-time Liberal incumbent, Nigel Drury.

Subsequently, upon Drury's retirement, in the big anti-Labor swing of 1975, Liberal John Moore won Ryan and became a minister in the Fraser and Howard governments.

The Coalition had just been defeated in the Western Australia and Queensland state elections, and the public reaction to the GST introduced eight months earlier was still worrying the Liberals.

[4] Leonie Short won the seat for Labor in a close contest on preferences, with only 255 votes separating her from Liberal candidate Bob Tucker on a two-party basis.

Short contested the 2001 federal election, but was defeated by her Liberal opponent Michael Johnson, who had by then renounced his British citizenship.