Bellerive, a suburb of the City of Clarence, on the eastern shores of the Derwent Estuary, stretches from Kangaroo Bay where it borders Rosny Park, around the curved shoreline of Bellerive Esplanade to Kangaroo Bluff, then down to Bellerive Beach and east to Second Bluff, where Bellerive borders Howrah. To the north Bellerive is bordered by the small foothills of Waverly Flora Park.

The area around Bellerive Quay and the boardwalk has a quaint village feel, with many historical homes and buildings in the area, some of which date from the early 19th century. The old Bellerive Post Office, which was built in 1897, now houses both the Sound Preservation Museum and the Genealogical Society of Tasmania. At the point of Kangaroo Bluff is the 19th century British fortress known as Kangaroo Battery (built 1885) which is now a public park.

Originally named Bidassoa Street, Queen Street was re-named in 1897 to honour the jubilee of Queen Victoria. It was the main thoroughfare from the ferry terminal to the beach when day-trippers and holiday-makers flocked to Bellerive from the 1860s until the 1920s.

Bellerive was first settled in the 1820s, and at that time known as Kangaroo Point, for the large numbers Kangaroos that would be seen on the shore. That name is said to have been coined by Lieut. Edward Lord, who first came to the Derwent in February 1804 at the founding of Hobart. Lord was in command of the guard of marines in the ship Ocean, which also carried Lieut-Gov David Collins and Hobart's founding settlers.

Tthe area soon expanded rapidly, with roads to the farming districts of Clarence Plains (Rokeby), Coal River (Richmond) and Hollow Tree (Cambridge) soon developing. By the 1830s the name was changed to Bellerive (meaning "beautiful river bank") and the village had become the hub of eastern shore contact with Hobart, and several boats would cross between Bellerive and Sullivans Cove every day.

Heritage Buildings

Note: unless stated otherwise, the homes described are private property and are not open for public access.

There are numerous heritage buildings in and around Bellerive. The Bellerive Primary School was also built in 1842. Designed to accommodate forty pupils, it was renovated and additions made in 1884. It ceased as a school in 1954. The old Bellerive Post Office, which was built in 1897 of local sandstone, now houses both the Sound Preservation Museum and the Genealogical Society of Tasmania. Nearby the Waterman’s Arms at 5 Queen St was originally an inn.

In 1834 there were four known hotel/inn/taverns: Clarence House (1835–1838), Golden Fleece Inn (1823–1838), Highlander (1835–1861) and the Plough (1835–1866). The Wheat Sheef (1838–1842) opened and closed during this time. A Bellerive Hotel existed according to licensing records between 1862–1865 and 1898–1901.


Waterfront Hotel

The Clarence Hotel, built in 1879, has long been both a local social centre and waiting point for ferry passengers. Bellerive’s only surviving 19th century hotel now known as the Waterfront Hotel (4 Cambridge Road, Bellerive), it hosts a fine array of historical photographs displayed in the lounge. The two storey stucco building with double hung windows. A section on the street facade is set back giving the facade a Regency feel. The building has a hipped iron roof, quoins to the corners and stuccoed architraves around the windows.


Natone

Natone (1863), at 4 Petchey Sreet, Bellerive, is a National Trust classified house was built for Hobart judge Sir Valentine Fleming. He sold it in 1873 to James O’May, a pioneer of the Hobart Ferry Services, who expanded the house, adding a rear section and fine verandah. It is now National Trust of Australia listed. Natone is a stone cottage, memorable for its encircling verandah, extensive suburban garden and fine hillside location overlooking Bellerive.


Community Arts Centre

One of the oldest surviving buildings in Bellerive is the Commandant's Cottage. The Old Bellerive Police Station and Watch House is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Bellerive. The original Police Station was built in 1842 from local sandstone, much of the original structure still remains intact and contains an original cell. Later cells, made from weatherboards still survive as well. Following the inauguration of the Clarence Plains council in 1860, the Watch House served as council chambers until the construction of a purpose built town hall in 1929. After World War 2, the building was renamed the Bellerive War Memorial Community Centre and continued as a library until the opening of the new Rosny Library in 1960. It is currently used as a Community Arts Centre. Location: 15 Cambridge Road, Bellerive.


Bellerive Bluff House

Bellerive Bluff House (1885) is a late-Victorian home built for Robert Hutchinson. Fair View, at 9 Victoria Esplanade (1892) is a Victorian sandstone residence was built by the O’May family, pioneers of the Bellerive ferry service. Burton’s General Store at 10 Cambridge Road is the oldest of the original village stores. The Police Station at 13a Cambridge Rd was built as a police station by local builder Peter Denholm in 1930. Bellerive Social Institute (1897) was the focus for cultural and social activities including musical evenings, plays and lectures and later weddings and dances.


Bellerive Institute building

The former Library was built as an institute building in Victorian Free Classical style, in which many such institutes around Australia in the later part of the nineteenth century were designed. Built in 1897, it features a classical front with quoins, vase and an entablature and parapet whilst the sides and rear are un-adorned. It is now the Hobart Christian Life Centre, Location: 8 Petchey Street, Bellerive.


Bellerive Post Office

Arguably Bellerive’s best known landmark, the Post & Telegraph Office was erected in 1897 by a Mr H. Gibbins for the sum of 653 pounds. The building was constructed of brown and white stones which were both quarried locally. At its opening, the Mercury newspaper praised the new post office as not only a great convenience to the residence but a handsome ornament to the town. The clock was lauded as an immense boon to the public, particularly those needing to check the time on their ways to the ferries. The post office operated on the site for 85 years until services were relocated to Rosny in 1982. It is now home to the Sound Preservation Association of Tasmania and the Family History Centre. Location: 19 Cambridge Road, corner of Queen Street, Bellerive.


5 Victoria Esplanade, Bellerive

The Federation era residence at 5 Victoria Esplanade, Bellerive, is in a spectacular position on Bellerive Bluff, one of the most prestigious locations in Hobart and Hobart’s Eastern Shore. It is situated on the waterside with views of Kangaroo Bay and the Derwent River, extending to the city and Mount Wellington. The home was built circa 1905 and was in fact the original family home of Elsie Curtin, wife of former Prime Minister John Curtin, and the two are believed to have met at the property in 1912 after Elsie’s father took a young John out sailing and then home for tea. It is a weatherboard house with a half gable roof and projecting gable to the street. The eaves are lined and there are timber brackets under, exhibiting an Italianate influence.


The former Golden Fleece Inn

The Golden Fleece Inn, built about 1823 by John McCormack, operated on Victoria Esplanade operated until about 1880, when it was converted to a private house. The Golden Fleece was a truly valuable and well-frequented premises. The inn was a regular meeting place for travellers and settlers from the Eastern Sshore, who frequented the inns of Kangaroo Point while waiting for the ferries heading to Hobart Town. Rev Robert Knopwood was a regular ferry passenger, and visitor to the Golden Fleece Inn; he recorded his visits in his diary in the 1820s. Kangaroo Point Court records also reveal constant activity around the once busy harbour port of Kangaroo Point, including this inn. Now a private residence known as Belle Vue, it was occupied by former Clarence Councillor and farmer, Albert Free, during the first half of the 20th century. In the 1950s the building was renovated by new owners, the large windows, still in the same space, were replaced with large metal framed windows. During adaptation, several old coins were found under the floorboards, including a Spanish silver dollar, indicating its age. Location: 1, Victoria Esplanade, Bellerive.


The Villa

The Villa (1843) built for Richard Morgan Jnr, became the Bellerive Hotel around 1867. A fire destroyed a major part of the building in 1939. The Villa has been successfully converted to offices and is currently leased by an accountancy firm. It is a small corner Georgian stone building, originally a shop and residence, occupying an important corner site at the end of the main street of Bellerive. The top storey was removed after a fire in 1939. The building takes its name from Villa Belle Rive, a guest house in Cannes, France, that was constructed in 1863.


The Villa, 1940s

Petchey Bell Cottage at 13 Petchey Street Bellerive is a single storey Georgian cottage, sadly compromised by major unsympathetic additions. Perhaps the most important feature of the house is its fine old garden, which gives a very gracious entry to the cottage set well back from the street. The Georgian single storey stucco cottage features an ron hip roof, twelve pane windows, a panel door and timber verandah.


Rosny Farm

Rosny Park Farmhouse and Barn at 18 Rosny Hill Road, Rosny Park, is a farm complex that was erected on land granted to Richard Morgan, a former convict transported on the first fleet who was re-settled from Nolfolk Island when its first settlement was closed. The farmhouse and barn are historically significant as part of the early settlement of the Hobart area dating possibly from as early as 1807. The grouping of the buildings around a partially enclosed courtyard suggests a defensive complex at a time when farms in the area were frequently attacked by Aborigines.

The barn is similar to an English ‘bothy’, or animal shelter, built on a slope to facilitate drainage of animal wastes in a way that is rare in Australia, where winter foddering of stock was usually unnecessary. Its painted-stone farmhouse in the Georgian simplified classical style features ground and attic floors. There is a central front door with fanlight and two twelve-pane double-hung windows to the front and sides and a similar window in each side gable. The south wall is stuccoed. The roof is clad in corrugated iron and has two skylights at the rear. There is a rear skillion-roofed extension, linked to a hipped-roofed pavilion behind. Ruined stone walls of an outbuilding remain in the yard, linked by a stone wall to a rubble stone barn with dressed quoins and hipped, iron-clad roof.


Rosny School House

The Rosny School House at the historic Rosny Farm site is a replica of the old Osterley school house built around 1890. The present replica was added to the Rosny site in the 1970s and is a smart addition to the existing two buildings – Morgan’s Barn (circa 1813) and the Cottage (circa 1850). Today the school house is used as a gallery and for other functions, such as book launches

St Mark's Chapel

The St Mark's Chapel, Bellerive an Anglican church was built in 1851 on the former site of the 1826 "Chapel of Ease". It was the second Anglican Church established at Bellerive, the earlier church, also dedicated to St Mark, opened in 1852. It remains relatively unchanged and is to be found two blocks away in Queen Street.

The move to build a new church began on Friday 8 August 1890, when the Parish Council proposed that a new building had become necessary due to the increasing population of the suburb and “on account of the present edifice falling into decay”. It was to take over a decade of fundraising to bring the plan to fruition. The foundation stone for the new church was laid on Saturday 21 October 1903 by the Governor of Tasmania. Construction was completed in about six months and it was opened and consecrated on Saturday 21 May 1904. Location: Cnr Clarence Street and Scott Street.

Bellerive Heritage Walk

Bellerive Oval

For people who haven't been there, particularly those from mainland Australia, the mention of the name Bellerive conjures up images of Tasmanian born cricketers Ricky Ponting and David Boon hitting fours and sixes over the pickey fence of their own ground, Bellerive Oval. Currently known as Blundstone Arena for sponsorship reasons, Bellerive Oval hosts Australian rules football matches and is the only venue in Tasmania which hosts international cricket matches. It has been a venue for international Test matches since 1989 and one-day matches since 1988.

The venue is best known as the home ground for the state cricket teams, the Tasmanian Tigers and Hobart Hurricanes, as well as It is also the secondary home ground for AFL club North Melbourne, who play three home games a season at the venue. The stadium has undergone significant redevelopment to accommodate major sporting events, it has a spectator capacity of 19,500.

Football and cricket first started being played in the area where Bellerive Oval is now in the mid-to-late 19th century. In 1884 the first football match on record from the area was played between Carlton and Bellerive. In 1913 the piece of land located between the now Beach, Church and Derwent streets was sold to the Clarence council. One year later, the new Bellerive recreation ground was ready for use. The ground barely changed from then until the mid-1980s.

Kangaroo Bluff Battery

The presence of the Russian warships in the Derwent River, and the condemning of the Battery Point batteries in 1878 had expedited the development of the Alexandra and Kangaroo Batteries. The design of the Kangaroo Bluff was a pentagon shape that fitted conveniently into the point of the bluff above the cliff. The ditch, tunnels and underground chambers had to be cut out of solid stone and faced with masonry. Several loopholes and firing ports were fitted into the stone encasements to allow rifle fire from every aspect of the fort. In case of an attempted infantry assault, caponiers faced both landward sides of the fort, with firing positions facing each direction. This meant that the only position to safely assault the fort with infantry was up the sheer cliffs of Kangaroo Bluff. Lovation: 20 Gunning Street Bellerive.

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Clarence Jazz Festival

Tasmania’s premier jazz festival, the Clarence Jazz Festival is held in February each year. Being in the City of Clarence, Bellerive is one of the venues. Many of these concerts are free of charge with some ticketed concerts held at the Jazz Lounge at Rosny Barn.

With local, interstate and international acts, the Clarence Jazz Festival is a celebration of live music held at venues across the city. The Clarence Jazz Festival provides a few unique touches including the ambassador program that features well-known jazz performers who bring the concerts together, guest with the musicians on stage and engage with the crowd. There is also a scholarship program for a young musician to receiving tuition and mentoring that culminates in performing at the Bellerive Boardwalk.

Cambridge

Cambridge is a suburb in the greater area of Hobart, situated in close proximity with Hobart International Airport and the Cambridge Aerodrome (Cambridge Airport). In recent years Cambridge had developed an Industrial estate and has become a popular commuter town for people working in Hobart.


Acton House

Acton House is a magnificent, historically significant estate. Built in 1829 by esteemed colonial businessman, William Rumney, this imposing Georgian residence sits amidst park like gardens, a picturesque and secluded country estate comprising 6.6 hectares of gently to moderately undulating land, enjoying expansive views over Seven Mile Beach and rural and rural-residential countryside. The two storey Georgian house is of random rubble laid to courses. It features an iron hip roof, austere stone porch, a six panel central front door, twelve pane windows, a string course, and a one storey wing (kitchen) on the south side. Location: 47 Everton Place Cambridge.


Milford homestead

The stuccoed Old Colonial Georgian farm complex of Milford was built around 1840 by Richard Lewis, an early Tasmanian colonist who was elected one of the 15 commissioners for Hobart. The house is superbly sited on the shores of Pittwater. Richard Lewis (1789-1867), auctioneer and merchant, was born on 21 April 1789 at Oswestry, Shropshire, England, fourth son of Rev. David Lewis, vicar of Abernant and Conwil, Carmarthenshire, South Wales, and his wife Mary, née Lloyd, of Llandissilio in the same county.

After some years with a firm of merchants in London he migrated to Hobart Town in 1815 and founded the business later known as R. Lewis & Sons which engaged in commercial and shipping pursuits. In December 1816 he was appointed government auctioneer, and by the time of Commissioner John Thomas Bigge’s inquiry he was a substantial merchant in the town. In 1823 he was one of the foundation proprietors of the Bank of Van Diemen’s Land. He acquired farms in the Cambridge district, including Milford, Llanherne (Hobart Airport), the Neck, the Bluff, Abernant and Cilwen. The 150ha grazing property of Milford is the oldest Southdown sheep stud in Australia. Location: RA 1431 Tasman Highway, Cambridge.

Howrah

Located to the east of Bellerive and north of Tranmere, Howrah is a beachside suburb, with views across the Derwent River to Hobart City. Clarence Street runs through the centre of the suburb on its north side, separating the hillside section from the beachside. Clarence High School is generally thought to be in Howrah, due to it being located east of Wentworth Street, however it is in Bellerive. Howrah has a primary school, Shoreline Shopping Centre, is the largest shopping centre which services the area.

More about Howrah and Rokeby