Chestnut Blue - Kingston, Tasmania, Australia

Kingston, Tasmania, Australia

Kingston (including Blackmans Bay and Taroona)
A pleasant beachside suburb south of Hobart
Kingston-Blackmans Bay is located 14 km south of Hobart on the Channel Highway. It is now effectively an outer suburb of Hobart. Having crossed over the hills behind Hobart on the Southern Outlet or wound around the coast through Taroona on the Channel Highway the traveller reaches this pleasant beachside suburb.

The first European to explore the waters near Kingston was Admiral Bruni D'Entrecasteaux who sailed along the coast in 1792. In 1798 Bass and Flinders entered the Derwent River and Flinders came ashore and climbed Mount Wellington. But it was really the establishment of Hobart Town in 1804 which saw the exploration and settlement of Kingston. Only weeks after the settlement at Hobart Town the botanist, Robert Brown, explored the area to the south. The village which subsequently grew up was known for years as Brown's River. It was probably named after Robert Brown although there is some suggestion that it was named after a convict named Dick Brown.

The first settler in the district was Thomas Lucas who took up land around 1810. He was followed by William Nichols who settled near Brown's River in 1818. By 1820 there were a number of small holdings and in 1835 a road was built between Brown's River and Hobart. By the end of the 1830s there were 594 free settlers and 368 convicts living in the district.

Kingston was officially proclaimed in 1851. It subsequently developed as a fruit growing area. The construction of the Southern Outlet in the 1970s converted it from a weekend retreat to a very accessible southern suburb of Hobart.

In the early years of this century, the Kingston district played host to two literary luminaries. As a child Patrick White spent his holidays with his mother and his sister at Kingston Beach and in January 1909 the American novelist Jack London stayed in one of the local hotels.

The main attractions in the area include St Clements Church, the Australian Antarctic Headquarters, and the Shot Tower at Taroona.