It was located in the inner western suburbs of Sydney, and at various times included the suburbs of Pyrmont, Darling Harbour, Surry Hills, Balmain, Glebe, and from 1955 to 1969, Lord Howe Island.
It was held by the Australian Labor Party for all but seven months of its existence, and for most of that time was a comfortably safe Labor seat.
It was the first of four seats to be held by Billy Hughes, the eleventh Prime Minister of Australia and the longest-serving member of the Australian Parliament.
He was expelled from the ALP in November 1916; the time between then and the 1917 federal election was the only time the seat was out of Labor hands.
It was also held by T. J. Ryan, a former Premier of Queensland.