As at the 2016 election (the last election before being replaced by Clark), it incorporated the area covered by the Cities of Hobart and Glenorchy, together with the northern parts of Kingborough Council, including Taroona, generally north of the Huon Highway.

kunanyi / Mount Wellington was a prominent physical feature in the division's west.

Denison was a consistently marginal seat, but was held by the Australian Labor Party between 1987 and 2010 with little difficulty.

Its most prominent members were Sir Philip Fysh, a member of the first federal Cabinet; Athol Townley, Minister for Defence in the Menzies Government; and Duncan Kerr, a minister in the Keating, Rudd and Gillard governments.

Townley resigned in 1964 when he was named Ambassador to the United States, but he died before taking up the appointment.