A residential and commercial centre to the south of Hobart, Kingston offers many attractions including safe swimming, fishing, golf and shopping centres. Nearby Blackmans Bay, Tinderbox and Howden offer excellent views of the Derwent Estuary and across the D’Entrecasteaux Channel to Bruny Island.
Where is it?: 15 km south of Hobart. Road access to Hobart is by the Southern Outlet offering speedy travel through a green band of vegetation past Mount Nelson, or the more sedate and scenic Channel Highway via Taroona.
Markets
LOCAL DESIGNERS & PRODUCERS MARKET
Kingston Beach Community Hall, Beach Road, Kingston Beach
Trading: Sundays – approximately every 2 monhs – 10am – 2pm
Type: Art & Craft, Designers, Produce. Mobile: 0438 299 691
A community market held approximately every 2 months featuring local designers and producers displaying their handmade clothing, accessories, handbags, art, homewares and jewellery.
Things to see and do:
The headquarters of the Australian Antarctic Division is situated along the Channel Highway between Kingston and Margate. The centre provides support to the field stations in Antarctica. There are public displays of historic items, including Sir Douglas Mawson’s sledge, and photographs from Antarctic expeditions, and information material about Antarctic wildlife.
The Alum Cliffs walkway also offers some eminently photographic views. At the end of the walkway is the Blackmans Bay blowhole.
The scenic delights of the area can be enjoyed on the coastal drive through Blackmans Bay, Tinderbox and Howden or the views of Droughty Point, Bruny Island and D’Entrecasteaux Channel from Piersons Point.
Surrounding area:
The 66 metre tall Shot Tower at Taroona, to the north of Kingston, was built in 1870. It is a popular spot for visitors, offering expansive views of the Derwent Estuary from the lookout at its top.
Bruny Island: across the D’Entrecasteaux Channel from Kingston, Bruny Island is effectively two quite different islands connected by a narrow neck of sand. With its wild seascapes and sweeping surf beaches, rich maritime history, abundant birdlife and wildlife, tall forests and historic lighthouse, Bruny is an island paradise in Australia’s deep south. The car ferry to Bruny Island leaves from Kettering, 20 km south of Kingston. More >>
Fort Direction: With the outbreak of World War II, the Department of Defence acquired land at Piersons Point and South Arm on the opposite bank of the Derwent Estuary. Fort Direction was built on Piersons Point; its guns, though no longer used, are still in place. The only enemy action to ever affect Hobart happened on 1 August 1942, when a submarine-launched Japanese spy plane flew from the submarine’s mooring in Great Oyster Bay south along the east coast of Tasmania, before flying northward along the Derwent River surveying Hobart and then returning to its mother submarine.
Nearby Towns
Margate (8km south east)
Taroona (6 km north east)
Kettering (20 km south)
Place Categories: Areas, Cities and Towns and Hobart Surrounds.