Bridgewater is a northern suburb of

Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, Australia, 19 kilometres from the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

Overview

New Bridgewater Bridge under construction

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 federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

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 Brighton Bypass is a Australian dollar, A$191 million north/south Bypass (road), bypass of the Midland Highway (Tasmania), Midland Highway diverting traffic away from the northern Hobart satellite suburbs of Brighton, Tasmania, Brighton and ...

. The suburb connects to the western shore via the

Bridgewater Bridge The Bridgewater Bridge is a concrete box girder bridge that carries the Midland Highway across the Derwent River in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. This bridge connects the Hobart suburbs of Bridgewater and Granton. It accommodates a four-la ...

. Bridgewater was also once home to the railway station on the South line, which was used by commuters for travel into the city. It was demolished in April 1997.

Culture

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, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

, 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, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

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 recorded ...

), St. Paul's Primary School (

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

), 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, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

, 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 used fo ...

. 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

Government of Tasmania The Tasmanian Government is the executive branch of the Australian state of Tasmania. The leader of the party or coalition with the Confidence and supply, confidence of the Tasmanian House of Assembly, House of Assembly, the lower house of the ...

, 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)
/ref>

Sport and recreation

Since 2011 Bridgewater has been the home to soccer club Derwent United FC at Weily Park.

References

{{Hobart suburbs, state=collapsed Localities of Brighton Council (Tasmania) Populated places on the River Derwent

Overview

Culture

Education

Sport and recreation

See also

References