TASMining
Taroona
A shot tower on the Brown’s River road, then a seaside suburb.
1870Moir’s shot tower completed
WHAT STARTED IT
Taroona lies on the steep Derwent shore between Sandy Bay and Kingston, along the road that convict probation gangs cut to Brown’s River in the early 1840s. In 1870 Joseph Moir built a 173-foot stone shot tower beside that road to make lead shot for the colony’s guns.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Molten lead poured from the top of the tower fell into water at its base, and the works produced about 80 tons of shot a year until competition after Federation closed them in 1905. From 1920 land along the main road was cut into building blocks, advertised for boating, bathing and an expected tram extension.
TURNING POINTS
1870Joseph Moir completes his shot tower on the Brown’s River Road and entertains the workmen.
1905Unable to compete with other Australian shotmakers after Federation, the shot works close.
1920The Taroona Park Estate is subdivided on the main road, ‘not quite half-way to Brown’s River’.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A residential suburb of Kingborough on the Channel Highway, with the shot tower kept as a historic site and visitor attraction.