With the increase in seats before the 1949 election, a redistribution erased Sheehy's majority and made Boothby notionally Liberal.

Although the reconfigured Boothby had a notional Liberal margin of two percent, Sheehy concluded that the redistribution made Boothby impossible to hold and attempted to transfer to the newly created neighbouring seat of Kingston, which had absorbed much of the southern portion of his old seat.

However, he was defeated with a 48.4 percent two-party vote by Liberal Jim Handby.

Sheehy sought to retake his old seat in 1966, but was heavily defeated by Liberal John McLeay, Jr.

This article about an Australian Labor Party member of the House of Representatives is a stub.