It was located to the south of Melbourne's central business district and covered an area of approximately 40 km2 around the north and north-eastern shores of Port Phillip Bay.

The electorate, formerly working class, was much more demographically diverse on its final boundaries, with rapidly accelerating inner-city gentrification and high-density housing developments in later years.

It also had a high proportion of atheists and agnostics, with 38.8% of residents answering "No Religion" in the 2016 census, compared to 30.1% nationwide.

During this period it was held by only five members, all men, most notably Jack Holloway, a minister who served under John Curtin and Ben Chifley; Frank Crean, Treasurer and then Deputy Prime Minister in the Whitlam government; and Clyde Holding, a minister in the Hawke government who prior to switching to federal politics had served as Victorian Opposition Leader from 1967 to 1977.

After it was extended eastwards to Caulfield and other Liberal-voting areas in the 1990 redistribution, it became much less secure for Labor.