5
things I love about where I live
by John Stephenson
1. The view of Mt Wellington. Although I
don’t identify as Aboriginal and I can’t speak to the meaning of the mountain
to Tasmanian Aboriginals, I do identify with the mountain as a sacred place. Seeing
the mountain means I am home.
Europeans have also left their testament to
the mountain on the slopes of this beautiful natural wonder, like with the
plaque remembering the death of George Radford in 1903.
Allegedly, the colony’s former photographer, John Watt Beattie advised against the race on that day due to bad weather. There are also huts
and cabins dotted around the mountain that were built by locals who ventured up
the mountain using them as a retreat or shack.
The mountain is a hub for communications,
being the site for most of our radio and TV transmissions, used by amateur
radio, commercial and emergency services. I also once crewed on a film that was
shot on the mountain.
2. Being 15 minutes from the city, work,
school and all the places I need on a daily basis. I live in Kingston and work
at Anglesea Barracks in Hobart. This beautiful 200 year old facility is the
oldest barracks still operating in Australia. Another added bonus of my
workplace is that my office looks out on the mountain. It is also only 100 m from
where I was born. I once read there is some sort of stress in human beings that
is related to the distance they live from the place they were born. Apparently
for some people living on the other side of the world to their birth place can
be stressful. I figure I will never suffer from this.
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| The other famous man to be born at the Battery Point based Queen Alexandra Hospital |
3. Being five minutes from the beaches:
Kingston and Blackmans Bay and not far from Hinsby (Taroona). As much as the
mountain means to me, so does the beach. I didn't realise how much I missed it
until I moved back to a beach suburb after a stint in the country.
4. I love the quiet too. Despite being a
large suburb, Kingston is pretty quiet and the noise I hear is children
playing.
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| Connor taking the mark of the century. |
5. The bush. Where else in Australia can you
be 15 minutes from a capital city and yet right in the bush?
5a. That Kingston might get the NBN one
day...
What do you love about where you live?
Read more here –
John Stephenson was born in the old Queen
Alexander Maternity Hospital in Battery Point and takes great pride that his
current work place is less than 100m away. Raised in Dodges Ferry and later
Taroona, he now lives in Kingston with his wife and three children. John
decided not to join the family photographic business (Beatties Studio) and pursued a career in IT, although he is
now rebooting the studio into an online digital collection of Tasmania's old
historic photographs.
He likes movies, TV, bush walks and many
other things. In his spare time he restores old photographs and writes on his
blog, find it here.
