Taroona is a residential suburb in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, on the route between the Hobart City Centre and Kingston. Although on the edges of the City of Hobart, Taroona is actually part of the municipality of Kingborough. Taroona is bounded on the east by the River Derwent, and has several beaches along the shore. The main beaches with public access are Taroona Beach, Hinsby Beach and Dixons Beach. Past Hinsby Beach, the Alum Cliffs form a section of cliffed coast to the neighbouring suburb of Bonnet Hill.

Name

The name Taroona is derived from the Mouheneener word for chiton, a marine mollusc found on rocks in the intertidal regions of the Taroona foreshore.

History

Traditional owners

Prior to the British colonisation of Tasmania, the land had been occupied for possibly as long as 35,000 years by the semi-nomadic Mouheneener people, a sub-group of the Nuennone, or "South-East tribe". Mouheneener shell middens can be found scattered all along Taroona's foreshores.

European settlement

This district was originally known as Crayfish Point and the diaries of Robert Knopwood contain reference to expeditions to catch crayfish there.

The first European settlement at Taroona took place in the early 19th century, when land was granted to settlers who had relocated from Norfolk Island. For the remainder of that century, the area was largely used for farming, and was sparsely populated.

In the mid 1890s, Clarendon James Cox Lord purchased an 18-acre property which he called Taroona, after an Aboriginal word for sea shell. Lord built himself a pretty homestead and also established tea rooms where visitors could indulge in delicacies such as strawberries and cream while overlooking the River Derwent, Hobart.

In the first half of the 20th century, more large and elegant residences were built, as well as beach shacks and cottages which were used for seaside holidays by the residents of Hobart.

At the northern end of Taroona Beach, just above the foreshore, there is the grave of a young sailor and First Officer, Jas. Batchelor, who died on the schooner Venus in the Derwent Estuary in 1810, and was buried ashore on 28 January 1810. It is the oldest known European grave in Tasmania, and was declared an historic site by the Australian Heritage Commission on 21 March 1978.

After World War II, significant subdivision of Taroona was undertaken, and the suburb's population rapidly expanded. Having been developed mainly in the "era of the automobile", Taroona was, from the beginning, a commuter suburb, and it has a notable absence of commercial or retail premises, with many of the early retail enterprises having lost the battle with larger supermarkets elsewhere.

In the arts, lead vocalist of The Seekers Judith Durham (born Judith Mavis Cock, 3 July 1943) lived in Taroona as a young girl, and attended the Fahan School in Sandy Bay before moving back to Melbourne in 1956. She joined The Seekers in 1963. Gwen Harwood, a poet and librettist, lived in Taroona with her family for a number of years in the 1950s. Louise Lovely, Australia's first actress to achieve fame in Hollywood, spent her later years in Taroona until her death in 1980.

David Bartlett, a former Tasmanian premier (2008), was also raised in Taroona.

Shot Tower

thumb|200px|right|The Taroona [[shot tower]]

Situated on the Channel Highway just south of Taroona is one of the State's most unusual historic buildings, the Shot Tower. The Shot Tower is tall and wide, and was constructed in a cylindrical shape by Joseph Moir in 1870 from locally quarried sandstone blocks. Lead shot was made by dropping molten lead through a sieve at the top of the tower, and by the time it hit the water at the bottom, it was cold and spherical in shape. A climb up the 259 steps to the top of the tower gives a scenic view of the Derwent Estuary.

References

  • Community website