The Southern Endowment, largely used for light industrial purposes, also includes a sports complex, the Edgar Centre.

It is bounded by Musselburgh in the west and southwest, Shiel Hill in the east, and the coastal suburbs of Tahuna and Tainui in the south.

These two smaller suburbs, which lie close to the Pacific Ocean, are often considered part of either Andersons Bay or Musselburgh.

The rocky outcrops of the Musselburgh Rise[3] stand immediately to the west and south of the Andersons Bay Inlet.

Close to the southern edge of the Andersons Bay Inlet a large memorial stone commemorates the Taranaki Māori prisoners of the New Zealand Wars who were transported south to Dunedin, many of whom constructed the causeway across the head of the inlet and much of Dunedin's foreshore roads as forced labour.

Andersons Bay's main roads include Portobello Road and Portsmouth Drive (in the industrial area north of the inlet, and Musselburgh Rise, Silverton Street, and Somerville Street (in the residential area to the south).

Andersons Bay gained its current name due to early settler James Anderson and his son and daughter-in-law John and Isabella, who were the first European settlers in the district in 1844 - four years before the official founding of the Otago Settlement and Dunedin.

[6] In the late 19th century both a railway and ferry service connected this area with central Dunedin, but neither has survived.

David Bain, found guilty, served 13 years of a life sentence before succeeding in having the case reopened.

On 15 March 2019 part of Somerville Street in Andersons Bay was cordoned off while police, including Armed Offenders Squad officers, searched a house formerly occupied by the perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque shootings.

Tahuna and Tainui are two small, somewhat vaguely defined suburbs which lie to the south of Andersons Bay and Musselburgh, close to Dunedin's southern coastline (Ocean Beach).