Taroona Beach is a popular beach destination along the River Derwent in

Taroona Taroona is a major residential suburb approximately 15 minutes drive from the centre of Hobart, Tasmania on the scenic route between Hobart and Kingston. Although on the edges of the City of Hobart, Taroona is actually part of the municipality o ...

Hobart, Tasmania Hobart ( ) is the List of Australian capital cities, 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 (Tasmania), River Derwent, it is the southernmo ...

. The south facing beach looks directly out to

Storm Bay The Storm Bay is a large bay in the south-east region of Tasmania, Australia. The bay is the river mouth to the Derwent River estuary and serves as the main port of Hobart, the capital city of Tasmania. The bay is bordered by Bruny Island to ...

and the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, who in 1642 wa ...

, with views of the Derwent estuary, the

City of Clarence Clarence City Council (or City of Clarence) is a Local government in Australia, local government body in Tasmania, and one of the five municipalities that constitutes the Hobart, Greater Hobart Area. The Clarence local government area has a po ...

on the eastern shore, Opossum Bay, South Arm, the Alum Cliffs and northern tip of

Bruny Island Bruny Island is a coastal island of Tasmania, Australia, located at the mouths of the Derwent River and Huon River estuaries on Storm Bay on the Tasman Sea, south of Hobart. The island is separated from the mainland by the D'Entrecasteaux C ...

. Taroona Beach is situated between Hinsby Beach and Crayfish Point, home of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Centre for the

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

. Taroona Beach contains a boat ramp and is backed by Taroona Park which contains bathroom facilities, a skate park, scout hall, the Taroona Tennis Club, and the Taroona Bowls and Community Club.

History

Taroona Beach has historically been a popular staple of local activity, used for exercise, beach combing, kayaking, sailing, snorkelling, bodyboarding and swimming. Prior to the

British colonisation of Tasmania The British colonisation of Tasmania took place between 1803 and 1830. Known as Van Diemen's Land, the name changed to Tasmania, when the British government granted self-governance in 1856. It was a colony from 1856 until 1901, at which time i ...

, 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". 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 Taroona Beach. Mouheneener shell

middens A midden is an old dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bones, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human occupati ...

can be found scattered all along Taroona's foreshores. On 28 January 1810, a young sailor named Joseph Batchelor died onboard the vessel ''Venus'' incoming from India. Batchelor was brought ashore and buried at Taroona Beach; his is reputed to be the oldest European grave in Tasmania. Batchelor's Grave was a declared historical site by the

Tasmanian Heritage Register The Tasmanian Heritage Register is the statutory heritage register of the Australian state of Tasmania. It is defined as a list of areas currently identified as having historic cultural heritage importance to Tasmania as a whole. The Register is k ...

on 21 March 1978. A reenactment of Batchelor's body being brought to Taroona Beach was carried out to mark the 200th anniversary of the sailor's burial on Thursday 28th January 2010. During her time as a resident of Taroona, poet

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 ...

wrote popular beachside poems including ''At the Water's Edge'', ''Last Meeting'' and ''Estuary'' which contain vivid descriptions of Taroona Beach and surrounds. Horseriding on Taroona Beach was banned in 1950. In 1952, the

Kingborough Council Kingborough Council is a local government body in Tasmania, and one of the five municipalities that constitutes the Greater Hobart Area. Kingborough is classified as an urban local government area and has a population of 37,734, it covers the ...

requested financial aid from the Australian Government to build a swimming bath at Taroona beach as a means to protect children from sharks, although this never eventuated. In 2018, the eastern section of the beach became an off-leash dog zone.

Marine life

The mouth of the River Derwent leading to Storm Bay was a major calving ground of the

southern right whale The southern right whale (''Eubalaena australis'') is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus ''Eubalaena''. Southern right whales inhabit oceans south of the Equator, between the latitudes of 20� ...

(''Eubalaena australis'') until the 19th century when

whaling in Australia Whaling in Australian waters began in 1791 when five of the 11 ships in the Third Fleet (Australia), Third Fleet landed their passengers and freight at Sydney Cove and then left Port Jackson to engage in whaling and seal hunting off the coast of ...

became a lucrative industry. Southern right whales display strong maternal fidelity to their calving grounds, and their numbers were so great that early settlers complained that sounds of cavorting whales kept them awake at night. In July 1804, clergyman

Robert Knopwood Robert Knopwood (2 June 1763 – 18 September 1838) was an early clergyman and diarist in Australia. Knopwood was the third child and only surviving son of Robert Knopwood (from a wealthy Norfolk family) and his wife Elizabeth, ''née'' Bart ...

claimed that in crossing the River Derwent, "we passed so many whales that it was dangerous for the boat to go up the river unless you kept very near the shore". By the 1890s southern right whales had been brought to the brink of extinction, with over 25,000 recorded whales killed in Australia and New Zealand. The whaling industry ended in Tasmania in 1900. Southern right whales have only intermittently made appearances in the Derwent estuary since, during months in winter and spring when their migration takes place. In 2010, a southern right whale gave birth to a calf in the Derwent River just off the shore near Taroona Beach, the first birth recording in the estuary in approximately 190 years. A large Wedgenose skate (''Dipturus whitleyi'') weighing was caught off Taroona Beach in 1952. In the winter months of 2014,

humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the monotypic taxon, only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh u ...

s (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') and a

minke whale The minke whale (), or lesser rorqual, is a species complex of baleen whale. The two species of minke whale are the common (or northern) minke whale and the Antarctic (or southern) minke whale. The minke whale was first described by the Danish na ...

(''Balaenoptera bonaerensis'') (being the first confirmed record of this species in the river) were recorded feeding in the River Derwent for the first time since the 1800s. Other marine life sighted from Taroona Beach include the

Australian swellshark The Australian swellshark (''Cephaloscyllium laticeps'') or draughtboard shark, is a species of Scyliorhinidae, catshark, and part of the family (biology), family Scyliorhinidae, endemic to southern Australia. This benthic, bottom-dwelling sp ...

(''Cephaloscyllium laticeps''),

bottlenose dolphins The bottlenose dolphin is a toothed whale in the genus ''Tursiops''. They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus contains three species: the common bot ...

(''Tursiops aduncus'') and Burrunan dolphins (''Tursiops aduncus australis''), southern rock lobster (''Jasus edwardsii'') and the rare

spotted handfish The spotted handfish (''Brachionichthys hirsutus'') is a rare species, rare Australian fish in the handfish family, Brachionichthyidae, classified as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List 2020. It has a highly restricted range, being found ...

(''Brachionichthys hirsutus''), whose only habitat is in the Derwent estuary and surrounds. Caused by microscopic plankton, a

bioluminescence Bioluminescence is the emission of light during a chemiluminescence reaction by living organisms. Bioluminescence occurs in multifarious organisms ranging from marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some Fungus, fungi, microorgani ...

phenomenon intermittently occurs in the beach's waters in the evening.

Environment

The steep and narrow beach has waves averaging swells and is bookended by clusters of large boulder rocks. The beach can be viewed from beachside homes along Niree Parade. Taroona Park contains native flora including

Tasmanian blue gum ''Eucalyptus globulus'' subsp. ''globulus'', commonly known as the Tasmanian blue gum, southern blue gum, or blue gum, is a subspecies of tree that is Endemism, endemic to southeastern Australia. It has mostly smooth bark with some persistent sl ...

(''Eucalyptus globulus'' subsp. ''globulus''),

black gum Black gum may refer to several species of plants: * ''Nyssa sylvatica ''Nyssa sylvatica'', commonly known as tupelo, black tupelo, black gum or sour gum, is a medium-sized deciduous tree native to eastern North America from the coastal Northeas ...

(''Eucalyptus aggregata''),

sheoak The Casuarinaceae are a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants placed in the order Fagales, consisting of four genera and 91 species of trees and shrubs native to eastern Africa, Australia, Southeast Asia, Malesia, Papuasia, and the Pacific Is ...

(''Casuarinaceae''), Tasmanian Blackwood (''Acacia melanoxylon''), hopbush,

banksia ''Banksia'' is a genus of around 170 species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes, and woody fruiting "cones" and head ...

, coast wattle, and

saltbush Saltbush is a vernacular plant name that most often refers to ''Atriplex'', a genus of about 250 plants distributed worldwide from subtropical to subarctic regions. ''Atriplex'' species are native to Australia, North and South America, and Eurasia. ...

Access

Taroona Beach is accessible from the

Hobart City Centre The Hobart City Centre (referred to as the Hobart CBD) is a suburb surrounded by metropolitan Hobart, which comprises the original settlement, the central business district, and other built-up areas. It is the oldest part of Hobart and include ...

via the

Channel Highway The Channel Highway is a regional highway that travels south from Hobart To Huonville, Tasmania, Australia. The Channel Highway starts from the end of Sandy Bay Road and travels south toward Huonville via Taroona, Kingston, Huntingfield, Ma ...

. It is a two hour walk from the CBD, or a 25 minute metro bus ride. There is dedicated parking at the beach directly off Niree Parade and at Taroona Park. The beach can be accessed on foot via the Taroona Foreshore Track.

References

{{Hobart landmarks Beaches of Tasmania