Old Beach was the name given to a settlement originally on the south side of Herdsmans Cove on the eastern shores of the River Derwent. It was from here that the Compton ferry to Austin's Ferry was established by John Earle in 1816 (see below). Old beach is surrounded by an abundance of green mountainous terrain. At the heart of Old beach is an old mining quarry that was active in the late 1980s for the mining of Sandstone.

The area was first settled by colonists in the early 1800’s. A school was built around 1824 but by 1827 it had disappeared. Old Beach Post Office opened on 11 January 1866 and closed in 1975. Old Beach is today classified as a middle-class suburb.

The name has been in use since the 1817 muster, and originally referring to the then largely undefined area on the eastern side of the River Derwent extending from Mount Direction in the south to Cove Hill in the north. At the time of the introduction of the ferry service to Roseneath (now Austins Ferry), it was refered to as Compton.

John Ogle Gage recorded the name in correspondance in 1824 as a reference to his residence, and in some early records the name is spelt "Old Beech". This gives a little support to the local belief that the place was not named after a piece of the river foreshore but after an old man by the name of Beech who once lived in the area. He could have been associated with the local hostelry, or he may have conducted his own business in one of the small cottages near the ferry or main road, as there does not appear to have been a landowner with the surname Beech. It is claimed that travellers crossing the river at Austin's Ferry were often asked to leave items with "old Beech" before continuing their journey.

Brief history

James Austin in partnership with his cousin John Earle established the original ferry service from Austin's Ferry to Old Beach - a crossing of less than 3/4 mile. Both men arrived in the Colony of Van Diemens Land in 1804 having been transported from England for stealing beehives. They were released in early 1809. James was granted land on the West of the Derwent where his cottage still stands today. It waOld Beach Post Office opened on 11 January 1866 and closed in 1975. Old Beach is today classified as a middle-class suburb.s from here that the cousins offered fellow colonists transport across the river.

Initially, travellers were rowed across on demand after being offered refreshments at Austin's farm. Eventually, the service became more regulated with two crossings a day. Earle built a hut on the Old Beach side of the river in 1811. In 1815 Austin and Earle built their first ferry boat and cattle punt but it is 1816 that is recognised as the year this, the first trans-Derwent ferry service, began. It was not until 1818, however, that the ferry between Austin's and Old Beach was officially licensed and became part of the Hobart / Launceston road.

An inn had was built to accommodate travellers overnight, not far from Austin's Cottage - it was later to become known as Roseneath Inn. In 1820 Austin and Earle announced the completion of their new launch - a flat bottomed, flat decked punt - that was capable of transporting 30 head of cattle, 200 sheep, or 2 carts and 16 oxen. This "floating bridge" was towed across the river by one of the smaller boats. By 1821 Earle had built an inn at the Old Beach side of the ferry - now known as Compton Ferry.

The demands for the service continued to grow and an even larger ferry was commissioned by Austin. This vessel could carry 5 loaded carts and their teams of ox, 100 head of cattle 300 sheep or "a proportional quantity of other produce." In 1826 John Earle retired due to ill health and the ferry service continued to prosper under a new partnership - that between Austin and C. Goodridge. Austin had built two horse boats and two small boats.


Herdsmans Cove

A second ferry ran from Cove Point (the point beside Herdsmans Cove on the northern shore of the Jordan River now called Green Point) across to Stony Point, which saved travellers the hilly road from Old Beach and later there was a third ferry from Black Snake to Green Point - the route of the later bridge. Boats also travelled from Hobart to Old Beach. There were numerous complaints about the ferries but the roads were worse and people travelled by boat if they could. When the causeway connecting Granton to Bridgewater was opened the ferries and hotels at Old Beach closed and the area was mainly a farming centre.

In 1957 running water was delivered to Brighton and other areas but as Old Beach had a scattered population its request for water was denied. Hopes of development in the area were dashed when, in 1946, a man named Francois Fouche purchased a large Old Beach property, ‘Ballerton’, on which to build a Riviera-style country club. It was to include a golf course, pool, yacht basin and casino. The hotel burnt down in 1951 and the building of a smaller hotel commenced. A 9 hole golf course and a sub-division of vacant blocks were all that Fouche achieved.

On Tuesday 7th February 1967 bushfires raged throughout southern Tasmania and Old Beach was extensively damaged. People quickly rebuilt and as a result of the fires the government established the rural Fires Board, and a brigade was set up at Old Beach and run by a local committee. In 1981 there were 15 houses in Old Beach with no water or sewerage, and poor roads. Since that time the area has grown and in the 21st century it is expanding rapidly.

Old Beach Foreshore Trail

This pleasant foreshore walk begins at Jetty Road, where there’s a jetty and boat launching ramp. The jetty has an interesting history. It was used for a ferry service established by two convict cousins, John Earle and James Austin, in 1816 after completing their sentences in Van Diemens Land for steeling honey and beehives. From the Jetty you head eastwards to Cassidy’s Bay. It’s a beautiful foreshore with large areas of salt marsh and bird life. There are great views of kunanyi / Mount Wellington along the track.

More

Compton

Compton was described in The Mercury of 7th September 1886 as "an estate of 950 acres fronting on the Derwent opposite Roseneath, and extending back towards the heart of a gently rolling country, with occasional isolated round-topped hills, immediately overlooked by Gunner's Quoin, Mount Direction, and other eminences of the system of tiers bounding the river's course to the estuary on the N.E. for the last few miles."

"The section from an early date was called Old Beach, and through it was the first high road to the Midlands and North, to Bagdad, Bothwell, etc. Austin's Ferry then, in degree, was as important an institution as the Bridgewater Causeway and bridge is now. Old Beach, as the few living men and women of the "twenties" and "thirties" love to tell, was a busy place, had its resident magistrate of the first class, and his establishment of military and civil aids to authority. Gagebrook, an adjacent estate to Compton, was the official head-quarters, and the Gagebrook family led ton among the early country gentry, who, with the aid of assigned labour, denuded the valleys and downs of their native growth, and made a pretty rural settlement, very English in its aspect, and having very picturesque surroundings."

"The Compton homestead is on a rise between two basin valleys, right on the road to the ferry one way, and to Brighton, Tea Tree, &c, the other. It is a comfortable place and has the usual offices surrounding it, and good garden area, in which the almond and earlier stone fruit trees are now white with blossom. Two newly-planted orchards promise well and extension in this line is projected. It is a general farm, its extent, admitting of a fair amount of grazing, besides the cultivation of half its arable proportion of 300 acres annually. This soil is very good, and in favourable seasons yields large crops."

"There are 15 landholders whose properties range between 50 and 1,000 acres, and several with smaller areas. The peculiar situation of their country bars the utilisa- tion of the main road, hence though they meet their quota, like other colonists, for its maintenance, they do not use it for freight draught, so it is relieved of this. For stock, of course, they use it; three and a half miles more of it than they wish to do owing to the collapsed bridge; but their freight to and from Hobart is by water."

"A great part of Old Beach is underlaid by coal measures. Where creeks have cut deep through the subsoil in, their flow to the Jordan or Cove Creek its outlet to join the Derwent, coal and shale are exposed to view in many places. As far back as 30 years ago a practical coal miner offered terms to Mr. A. Brock's father to be allowed to prospect for and work coal on Compton. His observations led him to believe good quality coal could be got at no great depth, on a stretch of sandy ground under the hill on the Derwent frontage, but nothing came of the proposal."

It is thought Compton was named after John Compton, the overseer of Colonel Arthur's farm at the Marsh.

Otago

A neighbouring suburb on the eastern shore of the River Derwent, Otago takes its name from a ship that was broken up by a local shipbreaking establishment nearby on the shores of Otago Bay. The remains of the Otago (beached there in 1931) and a steel river steamer the Westralian (beached in 1937) can still be seen on the beach. The Otago was three masted iron barque that was built by A. Stephen at Glasgow, Scotland, in 1869.