Mount Stuart is a suburb of

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

that lies on a ridge that extends from a foothill of Mount Wellington, known as Knocklofty.

History

The original owners of the land, upon which Mount Stuart is built, were known as Mouheneenner band of the

South East The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

tribe of

Tasmanian aborigines The Aboriginal Tasmanians (Palawa kani: ''Palawa'' or ''Pakana'') are the Aboriginal people of the Australian island of Tasmania, located south of the mainland. For much of the 20th century, the Tasmanian Aboriginal people were widely, and ...

. Ownership of the land began to change after British occupation of the land began in 1803.

Etymology

The name Mount Stuart comes indirectly from a

Governor of Bombay Until the 18th century, Bombay consisted of seven islands separated by shallow sea. These seven islands were part of a larger archipelago in the Arabian sea, off the western coast of India. The date of city's founding is unclear—historians tr ...

(

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

) in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Mountstuart Elphinstone Mountstuart Elphinstone (6 October 1779 – 20 November 1859) was a Scottish statesman and historian, associated with the government of British India. He later became the Governor of Bombay (now Mumbai) where he is credited with the open ...

. Mountstuart was the fourth son of the eleventh

Lord Elphinstone Lord Elphinstone is a title in the Peerage of Scotland created by King James IV in 1510. History The title of Lord Elphinstone was granted by King James IV in 1510 to Sir Alexander Elphinstone of Elphinstone, who was killed at the Battle of ...

, and was born in

Dunbartonshire Dunbartonshire ( gd, Siorrachd Dhùn Breatann) or the County of Dumbarton is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the west central Lowlands of Scotland lying to the north of the River Clyde. Dunbartonshire borders P ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. A ship, the ''Mountstuart Elphinstone'', was named in honour of the Governor, and in 1836, this ship visited

town. The Mountstuart Elphinstone brought the news that the unpopular Lieutenant-Governor

George Arthur Sir George Arthur, 1st Baronet (21 June 1784 – 19 September 1854) was Lieutenant Governor of British Honduras from 1814 to 1822 and of Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania) from 1823 to 1836. The campaign against Aboriginal Tasmania ...

, was ordered to return to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. This allowed reversal of some of his unpopular Laws. To celebrate, locals named two roads to the north west of the town 'Mount Stuart Road' and 'Elphinstone Road'. Over time the area around Mount Stuart Road became known as 'Mount Stuart'. After a while an area outside 'Hobart Town' (including much of

West Hobart West Hobart is an inner-city suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is in the hills immediately west of the city centre, and shares the postcode 7000 with that district. History The area was first settled as a farming district, hosting poult ...

) was designated 'Mount Stuart Town'. Knocklofty (hill) was also known as Mount Stuart or Paraclete. Mount Stuart Town was absorbed into Hobart around 1908. Mount Stuart also uses the general Hobart postcode of 7000. West Hobart gradually developed as a separate suburb, and the hill of Knocklofty progressively became a reserve. Next to the Knocklofty Reserve is a water reservoir, near which walkers can take in views of Hobart.

Demography

Mount Stuart is a predominantly residential suburb located at the end of Elphinstone Road.

Education

The main school in the suburb is Mount Stuart Primary School, which opened in 1957. The site had previously been part of the Paraclete Estate. The Kindergarten on Raymont Terrace has moved and currently Mount Stuart Presbyterian Church rents the building, using it for their Kids Church and morning tea after the church service.

Facilities

The Mount Stuart Community Hall is a feature of the suburb, on land owned by the

Hobart City Council Hobart City Council (or City of Hobart) is a local government body in Tasmania, covering the central metropolitan area of the state capital, Hobart. The Hobart local government area has a population of 53,684 and includes the suburbs of West ...

and is managed by the Mount Stuart Community Association. The Mount Stuart Scout Group have met at this hall since 1959. A dance school is also run from the Hall. There is a local park with

barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (informally BBQ in the UK, US, and Canada, barbie in Australia and braai in South Africa) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that use live fire and smoke t ...

s at the end of Benjafield Terrace, beneath the Mount Stuart Lookout, which has views of the city, Mount Dromedary, and the northern suburbs. The playground features a mock rock-climbing wall.

Notable people

Carolyn Frohmader Carolyn Patricia Frohmader (18 February 1965 – present) is an Australian human rights campaigner for women and girls with disabilities, and the long-serving Executive Director of Women with Disabilities Australia (WWDA). Biography Born in Mou ...

, multiply recognised human rights campaigner for women and girls with disabilies

References

* * Localities of City of Hobart {{Tasmania-geo-stub