1. from 1903, the Two-Storey Weatherboard Mt Royal Family Hotel
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1. From 1903, the two-storey weatherboard Mt Royal family become state champions with Len often playing for Australia. hotel overlooked over the beach from its 20 acre hillside site. It became the Clarendon Childrens Home (1945), was replaced 10. No. 53 Beach Road, Rosebanks, was formerly the home of by separate cottages and pulled down c.1976. Clarendon closed eccentric local doctor and cricket tragic, C N Atkins. He had a nurse in 2006, and the land was subdivided. run a five-bed maternity hospital here during the 1920s and ‘30s. 11. No. 46 Beach Road was home to another golfing family, the Toogoods. As club professional, Alf Toogood first lived in the cottage on the course. His sons, John and Peter, became representative golfers. In 1954 Peter defeated his brother John Jetty and Australasian Hotel to win the Australian Amateur Championship – which generated 5. Opposite was the Kingston family’s two-storey home and the headline “TOOGOOD TOO GOOD FOR TOOGOOD”. store, complete with verandahs and door opening across the corner. It stocked everything – but was closed on Sundays, 12.On the now Stihl site was an early ‘front room’ shop that Colin and when beach kiosks supplied ice creams and cordials. Alan Walton later developed into Kingston’s first large self-serve grocery store, until the 1970s. The store finally closed in 2003. Mt Royal Hotel 6. At No 29 The Esplanade was Weller Arnold’s summer The KB Sailing Club began in 1954 and moved into home. He owned Arnold’s Biscuit Factory and Tearooms 13. The red brick hall (built in 1933) replaced an earlier its foreshore clubrooms c.1960. Just beyond it was in Hobart - and the famous Victoria Sponge recipe. weatherboard one. It was home to dances and balls, socials Kingston’s first but short-lived jetty. Completed in and concerts, badminton, youth clubs, card evenings … 1888 it was washed away in a February 1895 storm. 7. The river near the footbridge was a favourite swimming Friday night meant Perry’s Pictures - watched from the spot, complete with diving board. Regular floods often ‘comfort’ of a wooden pew, through a haze of cigarette smoke. 2. No 42 The Esplanade contains the oldest known house changed its route to the sea. Fishing for rock-cod, bream in Kingston. Its builder, William Nichols, who farmed the 30 and flathead was popular as was rowing up the river. acres behind the beach from 1814, made every nail and cut and shaped every board in its original four rooms. The house 8. Westward Ho at 41 Balmoral Road belonged to Hans Christian passed to Billy Williamson, whose job was to tie up and Bjelke-Petersen (uncle of Sir Joh). It is a good example of the black, collect fees from the ferries and barges using the jetty. The sump-oiled, vertical board summer homes ‘down the beach’. His stables housed his eclectic museum, the Old Curiosity Shop. Danish family emigrated to Hobart in 1891 but Hans moved to Sydney where he built up a chain of 160 Physical Education 3. Along the Esplanade (created 1886) are examples Schools. He spent summers at Kingston Beach and retired here. of the summer homes of Hobart’s wealthy business and professional families, built in the early 1900s. 9. Robert and Len Nettlefold lived at Nos. 33 - 35 and 9 respectively, their houses called Troon and St Andrews 4. On the Beach Road corner was the grand two storey, after the Scottish golf courses. In his 40s Robert, proprietor Beach Road c. 1910 verandahed weatherboard Australasian Hotel, built by George of Nettlefold Motors (later Motors) and an outstanding 14. The Citrus Moon on the Windsor Street corner was first the Lucas in the 1880s from whaling money. Both its bar and its silver sportsman, discovered golf. He bought the land to create site of a holiday guesthouse, Northhampton House, that service Sunday lunch made it the hub of life at the beach until the the KB Golf Course, moved to Balmoral Road and had a burned down inApril 1934. It was rebuilt as the Geeves’ general store 1950s. The 100m. long second jetty extended into the bay, in front. connecting footbridge built. He and his left-handed son, Len, and then became the Young’s Yum Yum Tree, a health food shop. 15. Look down Windsor Street, once lined with big gum trees, to see more holiday homes, built after the 1905 subdivision. Note the KINGSTON BEACH royal street names: Balmoral, Windsor, Victoria and Albert. At £60 each, the expensive blocks were snapped up by Hobart’s wealthy. History Walk Windsor St., Methodist Church on right 16. Along Recreation Street (created 1909) is the rec. ground and its grandstand built by Dudley Jones (whose band played at local dances). It was, until recent times, home of local cricket and Kingston Beach, mid 1920s football teams; and from the 1920s also home to the Agricultural Show which featured foot and horse races, chopping, hay In its heyday, from the 1890s through the 1930s, Kingston stooking, sheaf tossing, vegetable and fruit displays, cookery etc. Beach was a popular seaside resort. “Everybody who is anybody now goes to Browns River in the season,” 17. Well above Ewing Avenue (looking from Recreation Street) Kingston Beach was a favoured gathering place for said the Tasmanian Mail of 1903. At weekends and on is a black vertical board home, first the holiday home of Judge Aboriginal people, as its middens attest. Its first settler, holidays its beach was thronged with locals parading in Ewing, a W.A. and Tasmanian MP and the Administrator William Nichols, farmed 30 acres behind the beach and their Sunday best, visitors staying at its hotels and boarding of Tasmania (1923/24). It passed to Ellis Davies, then co- helped create a sandy track to the waterfront, the future houses, and the “summer people”, Hobart’s prosperous owner of the Theatre Royal, and with his brother, owner of Beach Road. Subdivision in the 1880s (southern side) and businessmen and professionals, who had their summer the Mercury newspaper. More recently, it was the home of in 1905 (northern side) created streets lined with expensive Michael Hodgman, former State and Federal Liberal MP. homes behind the beach. Ferries brought day visitors to blocks, where Hobart’s wealthy built summer homes and the jetty in their hundreds. A band played at the rotunda; enjoyed their seaside playground, with enough partying for the children enjoyed the maypole; kiosks sold homemade the locals to dub Balmoral Road “Immoral Road”. A post- ice creams and drinks, even hot water for the picnic WW2 housing shortage saw many holiday homes leased to cuppa. Some fished, punted up the river – or even swam. young families - and the essentially holiday character of the beach changed. However the beach, the river and a distinctive © 2013 Browns River History Group in association with the Kingborough Council architecture have maintained a definable ‘beach’ precinct..