The name changed to "The Tote" in 1980 when the venue began hosting local and Australian punk, post-punk, heavy metal and hardcore bands.

On 15 January 2010, due to high financial costs surrounding disputed liquor licensing laws, it was announced that the venue would be closing that same weekend.

The events surrounding the closure, the rally and various petitions, sparked public and political debate about liquor licensing laws and live music in Melbourne and Victoria.

The current venue is most likely named after an illegal betting shop operated by John Wren between 1893 and 1905 which was fictionalised in Frank Hardy's 1950 novel Power Without Glory.

[1] Daniel Healey, then an uncertificated insolvent, purchased the land in 1867 for £400 and fraudulently[2][3] transferred the deed by trust to his wife and child, operating the site as a grain store before building a hotel for £740 in about 1870.

[7] New licensing laws in 1886 saw licensee Bridget Healey before the local courts for having a door open to the bar or unlocked during prohibited hours.

It was not always run appropriately with daughter Margaret Walsh attempting to eject holder Eleanor Hunt in 1915 for not conforming to the licensing act by 'supplying a person under 18 years of age with liquor'.

The "high risk conditions" were triggered by the fact that the Tote hosts performance of "live or amplified music".

Amongst the crowd were amateur and professional photographers, film makers, a Tote documentary crew, various local independent music celebrities and a large collection of Melbourne's local independent musicians, patrons, long-time Tote patrons, former employees and others.As the evening progressed, several unsuccessful attempts were made to set up bands in the street.

[citation needed] In April 2010, the Victorian government announced it would soften its approach and allow live music venues to individually apply to have their licensing conditions altered.

That month Seventh Tipple, a company which owned a number of other live music venues in Melbourne, signed a new lease on the premise.

Groups and artists including The Meanies, Cosmic Psychos, The Drones, Mach Pelican,[28] Magic Dirt, The Birthday Party, The Spazzys, Underground Lovers, Rowland S. Howard, and Miss Destiny were regulars at the venue.

On 28 September 1986 The Bo-Weevils recorded a performance at the venue, which was issued as Garage Twangin' Retard Rabble Sounds, on cassette later that year.

The ghost is said to be neither friendly nor unfriendly and supposedly inhabits the landing of the stairs (beneath the large 'Cobra Woman' banner) and is apparently always seen making its way upstairs.

On the day of 30 April 1905 a domestic servant named Ellen M'Carthy became the mother of an infant which she put in a box beneath her bed.

[citation needed] There are persistent rumours of tunnels running from the cellar of the current Tote under Johnston and Wellington Streets to shops opposite.