Taroona
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Taroona is a major residential suburb approximately 15 minutes drive from the centre of
Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...
,
Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...
on the scenic route between Hobart and
Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...
. 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 Derwent River, 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 A cliffed coast, also called an abrasion coast, is a form of coast where the action of marine waves has formed steep cliffs that may or may not be precipitous. It contrasts with a Flat coast, flat or alluvial coast. Formation In coastal ar ...
to the neighbouring suburb of Bonnet Hill.


Name

The name ''Taroona'' is derived from the Mouheneener word for
chiton Chitons () are marine molluscs of varying size in the class Polyplacophora ( ), formerly known as Amphineura. About 940 extant and 430 fossil species are recognized. They are also sometimes known as sea cradles or coat-of-mail shells or suck ...
, 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. Taroona Post Office opened on 2 August 1906. On the foreshore above Taroona Beach there is the grave of a young sailor, Joseph Batchelor, who died on the sailing ship ''Venus'' in the Derwent Estuary in 1810, and was buried ashore on 28 January 1810. It is reputed to be the oldest European grave in Tasmania, and it is a declared Historical site. 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 A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...
, and it has a notable absence of commercial or retail premises, many of the early retail enterprises having lost the battle with larger supermarkets elsewhere.


1967 bushfires

In February 1967, southern Tasmania was engulfed in the most vicious wildfires on record, resulting in many deaths. Taroona was the closest suburb to the city of Hobart to take the full brunt of the fires, which swept across the suburb in the mid afternoon, wreaking havoc, and destroying many homes. Children and residents fled to the river, and many people's survival was due to the refuge the safe waters provided.


Establishment of Taroona High School

In 1958 a
public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
high school was established on a large parcel of land on the Channel Highway central to the suburb, and with a frontage on to the foreshore of the Derwent River. In 1960 the Taroona Primary School re-located to the same site, from an older building further south on the Channel Highway. Those original primary school buildings were adapted for kindergarten and pre-school but were burnt down by an arsonist in 1974. The kindergarten and pre-school were then re-built adjacent to the primary school. Taroona High School and Taroona Primary school are completely separate educational institutions, although they do share one oval. Originally the high school catered for grades 7 to 11, but with the establishment of the separate Matriculation College system in 1962 the grade 11 students were transferred to the Hobart Matriculation College. At its maximum the enrolments at Taroona High School were about 1200 in the 1960s, with students travelling from Ferntree, South Hobart, Sandy Bay, Battery Point, Kingston, Blackmans Bay, and several centres further south. There are now approximately 1150 students in high school, now only drawing students from the southern suburbs of Hobart. The current principal is Matthew Bennell.


Notable persons

Taroona was the childhood home of Tasmanian-born
Queen Mary of Denmark Mary (born Mary Elizabeth Donaldson; 5 February 1972) is Queen of Denmark as the wife of King Frederik X. Mary met Frederik (then Crown Prince of Denmark) while attending the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. They married on 14 May 2004 at ...
, who attended the river-side Taroona High School before completing her high schooling at Mount Nelson's Hobart College and embarking on her tertiary degree at the
University of Tasmania The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a public research university, primarily located in Tasmania, Australia. Founded in 1890, it is Australia's fourth oldest university. Christ College (University of Tasmania), Christ College, one of the unive ...
. In the arts, lead vocalist of
The Seekers The Seekers were an Australian folk music, folk-influenced pop music, pop group originally formed in Melbourne in 1962. They were the first Australian pop music group to achieve major chart and sales success in the United Kingdom and the Unit ...
, 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 Gwen Harwood (née Gwendoline Nessie Foster, 8 June 19205 December 1995) was an Australian poet and librettist. Harwood is regarded as one of Australia's finest poets, publishing over 420 works, including 386 poems and 13 librettos. She won num ...
, poet and librettist, lived in Taroona with her family for a number of years in the nineteen fifties. Louise Lovely, Australia's first actress to achieve fame in Hollywood, spent her later years in Taroona until her death in 1980. David Bartlett, former Tasmanian premier (2008), was also raised in 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 a 48 m (157 ft) tall, 10 m (32 ft) in diameter cylindrical
sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...
tower constructed 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 wonderful view of the Derwent Estuary.Guide to Tasmania's Historic Places - Shot Tower
Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service is the government body responsible for managing protected areas of Tasmania on public land, such as national parks, historic sites and regional reserves. Historically it has also had responsibility for mana ...
. Retrieved 14 November 2006


References


External links

*Community website http://taroona.tas.au {{Authority control Localities of Kingborough Council Populated places on the River Derwent Shot towers Taroona, Tasmania