Description

Knocklofty Hobart’s Back Yard

In Knocklofty Hobart‘s Back Yard, Suzanne Smythe has drawn on newspapers of the day to compile a lively history of Knocklofty, filled with famous and infamous people and places. She points out the traces in today’s landscape of buildings and industries long gone.

Residents of Hobart love walking through the tall trees of Knocklofty Reserve, visiting the Frog Ponds, spotting mopokes and wallabies, and admiring the wattle trees in bloom.  But there’s a lot more to Knocklofty than its natural beauty.  In the early days of European settlement, the boundaries of Knocklofty reached much further, and its history is intertwined with the modern suburbs of Sandy Bay, South Hobart, West Hobart, North Hobart, Mount Stuart and Lenah Valley.

Once a refuge for absconded convicts and a venue for fistfights and other dubious pastimes, Knocklofty yielded a bounty of timber, stone and brick that helped to build the Hobart of today.