The naming of the seat was unique amongst electoral districts in South Australia, and indeed anywhere within Australia, in that it incorporated the first name of the individual it was named after. Most likely the case for this was to distinguish between Ross Macpherson Smith and Keith Macpherson Smith, who were brothers.
Though typically a safe Labor seat, it returned a marginal result at the 1993 election landslide, with Labor reduced to a 2.1 percent two-party margin. It returned to being a safe Labor seat at the following election.