It is a low-density residential area with a large variety of housing types, including villas, cottages, blocks of flats up to three storeys and townhouses.

Their presence was recorded by Arthur Phillip and the French expedition led by Lapérouse who arrived within six days of each other in January 1788.

The reserve was moved back from the unstable sand to around the Elaroo Avenue area, at the end of the 1920s.

The First Fleet ship HMS Supply carrying Captain Arthur Phillip arrived in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788.

The area around La Perouse developed as many seaside suburbs did through outdoor pastimes and weekend visitors, especially after the tram line was built in around 1900.

Many unemployed people built makeshift homes in the Phillip Bay area during the Great Depression of the 1920s and 1930s.

A freshwater billabong has been constructed at the Back of Yarra Bay House to encourage the return of local frogs and birdlife.