Bridgewater 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 ...

, Tasmania. Located approximately 19 km from the Hobart CBD, it is part of the northern suburbs area of Greater Hobart.

Overview

Bridgewater is situated on the eastern shore of the Derwent River. It is a suburb of the

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

of the Municipality of Brighton. From a transport perspective, Bridgewater is one of the first suburbs encountered by visitors traveling from the state's north via the Midland Highway and the Brighton Bypass. The suburb connects to the western shore via the Bridgewater Bridge and Causeway. Bridgewater was also once home to the train station, which was used by commuters for travel into the city.

Businesses

While there have been some significant commercial ventures in Old Main Road (which is home to fast food restaurants, such as

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

and The Roost),

Cove Hill Shopping Centre A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. Coves usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are of ...

has been the central commercial area of Bridgewater for many years. Cove Hill includes a

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limit ...

, a KFC, and several specialty stores. Developments have seen new additions to the area, such as a new bottle shop. In November 2007, a new shopping centre, called the Greenpoint Plaza, was opened on Green Point Road. The plaza includes a Woolworths supermarket, the local post office, a BWS liquor store, and four other specialty stores. The area also has one petrol station, one pub (Derwent Tavern), and a library. Bridgewater commonly has a reputation for its low social class and is noted as a disadvantaged area. Much of this is due to the mass of

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, de ...

, mainly built in the 1970s as part of a public housing project that was operating from 1944 to 1989. It also has one of the highest proportions of cigarette smokers in Australia.

Education

Bridgewater has three

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

s: Northern Suburbs Christian School (

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

), St. Paul's Primary School (

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

), and East Derwent Primary School (

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

). It also has a public

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, Bridgewater High School, which includes a school

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is use ...

. East Derwent Primary School is a merger of the old Greenpoint and Bridgewater Primary Schools and is on the site of the former Greenpoint school. The State Government of Tasmania, through the Big Picture School initiative, has connected the public schools of the area together into what will be known as the "Jordan River Learning Federation", which will provide the area with K–12 public school education, through the East Derwent Primary School, Bridgewater High School, and the newly developed post year 10 education institute.Bridgewater High School (now Jordan River Learning Federation)
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Sport and Recreation

Since 2011 Bridgewater has been the home to soccer club

Derwent United FC Derwent United Football Club is an Australian association football club based in Bridgewater, Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption ...

at Weily Park.

References

{{Hobart suburbs Localities of Brighton Council (Tasmania)

Overview

Businesses

Education

Sport and Recreation

See also

References