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History
A history of Taroona
A history of Taroona, with articles by over 100 local authors, was published by the Taroona Historical Group in 1988 (the Australian bi-centenary.)
Taroona 1808-1986 Farm Lands to a Garden Suburb’ is now available on this website.
/the-taroona-book/taroona-book-digitised
Historical sites
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The Shot Tower Joseph Moir's Shot Tower (pictured on the left sidebar) is Taroona's most outstanding historical site, and one of Tasmania's most important heritage sites. More information, descriptions and images here: |
Batchelor's Grave
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In 2010 a re-enactment of a 'small footnote in history' was conducted on the shore at Taroona. The re-enactment marked the burial of Joseph Batchelor one hundred years previously. Here is an extract from Peter Gee's description of the event. 'Just about all that's known about him (Joseph Batchelor) is that he occupies the oldest marked colonial grave in Tasmania. |
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On the 28th of January 1810 Batchelor died on the approach to the then six-year-old settlement of Hobart Town, Van Diemen's Land. Rather than bury him at sea, the captain of the schooner 'Venus', Eber Bunker, dropped anchor in the Derwent and buried his second officer above the high tide mark at Taroona. While he wasn't the first European to die in the young colony, no one else's grave from before that time has survived - not with their name still on it anyway. Two centuries of salt winds, marauding cattle, bushfires, thoughtless fisherman and well meaning restoration has taken its toll on the freestone tablet inscribed with the barest details of a man's life and death.' More information and images here: |
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The Grange Horse Trough
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The trough is situated on the grassy area at the northern boundary of Taroona, also the northern entry to Kingborough municipality. It has this inscription: "The Grange, September 23rd. 1883 Be Ye Merciful Even as Your Father is Merciful" See the section in the Taroona Book: |
| Acton House
Acton house is situated on the northern side of Bonnet Hill and close beside the old Channel Highway. Reputed to have been built in 1842 to house the superintendant of Brown's River Probation Station (ie convict station). More in the Taroona Book and on this blog: http://ontheconvicttrail.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/acton-taroona.html |
Image taken from Alum Cliffs from Track sign. |
Brown's River Probation Station Brickfields
In the last few years a track, which leaves from Sedgwick Drive on Bonnet Hill, provides viewing of the scanty remains of the brickfields.
Kingborough Council, with the support of the South East Tasmanian Aboriginal Corporation, has erected interpretative signage with a panel at the beginning of the Brickfields track.
The sign recognises the habitation of the Brown's River area by the original tribal inhabitants, the Mouheneener people, and also recognises the European history of the site.
The Brickfields track provides an opportunity for visitors to pass through the
site of the brickworks which provided work for convicts and materials for the construction of
the Brown's River Probation Station and associated buildings. The area housed, at its peak, over 350 convicts that constructed the Brown's River Road, now the Channel Highway.
More about the Probation Station in The Taroona Book