The SOUTH of HOBART

 

1/ The historic Cascade Brewery is just west of Hobart. Tours are conducted daily.

2/ Aspirant tours gather at the old managers residence, which has a shop, restaurant and garden.

3/ Behind the old manager's residence is a lovely garden

4/ Just opposite the Cascade Brewery is Cascade Park with many lovely, old trees.

 

1/ Sandy Bay is a luxury, river view suburb just south of Battery Point to the south west of Hobart City. This view looks down Nutgrove Beach. To the right is the famous Wrest Point Casino. To the right of the Casino is Hobart City. In the distance is Mt Wellington.

2/ A key feature of Sandy Bay is easy access to boats. Some houses have private jetties, while there are hundreds of boats in the nearby marina.

3/ This view looks towards a private jetty at the end of Nutgrove Beach. Note the variety of houses behind the jetty all of which have great views of the Derwent Estuary.

4/ In Sandy Bay you can see some of the most grandiose houses in Hobart. This large modern house includes a large verandah, where guests can party from.

5/ This image shows the wider view across Sandy Bay. It looks to the north east at the Tasman Bridge and the luxury eastern shore of Hobart.

6/ This night photo from Nutgrove Beach shows the panoramic view of Hobart that you can see from Nutgrove Beach. It is a good place from where you can view the end of the yacht races and the New Year fireworks.

7/ This view looks down from a rise across Sandy Bay Road towards the Wrest Point Casino. In the foreground is an ancient, private jetty. Sandy Bay is popular both with walkers and with cyclists.

8/ In Sandy Bay are some of the most impressive, modern homes in Hobart. These homes have security garages and great views across the Derwent Estuary.

9/ There are also many attractive, heritage houses with lovely gardens in Sandy Bay.

10/ This is another attractive, heritage home. It looks over other houses to view the Derwent Estuary. Note the age of the pine tree in the garden.

11/ This is now the Maison del Mar apartment. It is one of the oldest homes in Hobart and was built in the 1830s. It has views and access to the Derwent Estuary behind it.

12/ This is one of the four churches of Sandy Bay. Beyond it are modern, luxury homes.

13/ This modern boardwalk at Sandy Bay Point connects Nutgrove Beach to Long Beach at the area they call Little Sandy Bay. You can see great views across the Derwent Estuary from this broad walk.

14/ This is Long Beach at Little Sandy Bay. Just beyond these trees is a large park. Nearby are both shops and cafes. Long Beach is one of the most popular beaches in Hobart.

15/ This view gives a panoramic view of Long Beach. In the distance is Blinking Billy Point. I was very impressed by all that I saw in Sandy Bay.

 

1/ South of Hobart and just north of Kingston on Sandy Bay Road is the old shot tower built in 1870. It was used to make pellets for shot guns, until the early 20th Century. It is 60 metres tall.

2/ This is the former factory at the base, which is now a shop and a cafe.

3/ To see the views you first have to climb up this ancient, windy stairway.

4/ This is the view across to Opussum Bay.

5/ This is the view south to Kingston and the Lower Derwent.

6/ This is the view north towards Taroona and way beyond it is the eastern shore of Hobart.

7/ The manager lived in this stylish Victorian house near the shot tower.

 

1/ On 29 December 2015 I went on the Pennicott Wilderness Tour of Iron Pot lighthouse. This tour involved a journey from the Hobart Docks down the Derwent Estuary to the Iron Pot light house. We then visited Betsey Island and returned to the Hobart Docks. Our voyage was in the special yellow touring boat shown above. This photo gallery shows what we saw.

2/ There were many boats on the Derwent that day. This is the Lady Nelson. It is replica ship that does tours of the Derwent Estuary. Beyond the Lady Nelson is the Hobart Docks and the Tasman Bridge that crosses to the eastern shore of Hobart.

3/ This view looks back north west at Hobart City and the Hobart Docks. Beyond is the majestic Mount Wellington, which dominates the Hobart skyline and this section of the Derwent River.

4/ We then passed the Wrest Point Casino at Sandy Bay. This casino is one of Hobart's icons.

5/ The western shore of the Derwent Estuary is dominated by steep cliffs. This view looks past the cliffs to the south of the Derwent Estuary.

6/ The rocky cliffs present many interesting shapes and colours. The orange colour is a kind of algae.

7/ This was one of the narrow inlets that we saw.

7/ This narrow inlet stretch right up to a cliff top above.

8/ The Derwent Estuary has many sheltered areas, where sea birds roost.

9/ I was told that this cave had been recently occupied by a homeless man.

10/ This view shows the cliffs that line the western shore of the Derwent Estuary.

11/ This view shows the southern Hobart suburb of Blackmans Bay. To the right is Mt Wellington. The rock peak on the left is Mt Sleeping Beauty. When viewed from the south, this mountain looks like a lady looking up at the clouds.

12/ This is the Iron Pot lighthouse. This ancient lighthouse guides boats up the Derwent Estuary. The platform to the right is the remnants of a large house that briefly stood here. This house was destroyed by a storm shortly after it was built.

13/ This is another view of the Iron Pot lighthouse. In the foreground is the remnants of the crane that once unloaded supplies. Note how sea birds that colonized the island.

14/ This is Betsey Island. It is on the eastern side of the Derwent Estuary. The vegetation cover has been denuded by rabbits.

15/ This one of the large caves on Betsey Island. Note how the vegetation cover has been denuded.

16/ Our boat made a very close approach to this cave.

17/ This view shows some of the rugged cliffs of Betsey Island.

 

1/ Sandy Bay is south of Hobart city. At Sandy Bay Point in Lower Sandy Bay is the Alexander Battery Park. This is the site of a fort built to defend Hobart from the threat of Russian raiders in 1885. It was progressively expanded until 1909. This fort is opposite to a similar fort on the eastern side of the Derwent River at Bellerive that you can see on the Hobart Bellerive Page. This is the view that the commander of the Alexander Battery had of the lower Derwent River that he was guarding.

2/ This 5.5 inch cannon (equivalent to a 140mm) was once located in the fort. It was capable of firing an explosive projectile a considerable distance down the Derwent River at potential raiders. To historically appreciate the fort, you need to fill in the empty firing positions with guns like these.

3/ This is the commanders view from the observation tower at the top of the hill looking down at his battery of cannons below. This view looks across the Derwent River at Tranmere. The opposite eastern shore is about 5 kilometres away. There are more cannon positions to the right of these.

4/ This view looks from the cannon firing positions back towards the commander's observation tower. This is the small green tower in the centre of the hill with a flag pole above it. The door you can see leads to one of the few open tunnels. This tunnel is shown in the image below.

5/ This tunnel leads from the main firing area to a small firing position to its north. It is about 2 metres high. I used a flash to show the construction.

6/ This is the firing position that the tunnel led to. It once housed a smaller 3.5 inch cannon.

7/ This image looks to the north across two large gun firing positions to the small one that you can see in the image above.

8/ This image looks down into the mustering yard. The doors lead to blocked galleries where the garrison once lived.

9/ This is the view from the mustering yard. It is easy to imagine the gunners parading here.

10/ This image shows alleys and rooms near the mustering yard.

11/ A large 5.5 inch cannon once stood on this structure. The trees have grown up since the fort was abandoned.

12/ I was told that a more modern "disappearing" gun once stood on this sport. This was a cannon that could be raised and lowered.

13/ These are the firing ports of two of the smallest guns.