Kingston Historical House is a pioneer house found in Kingston Park, South Australia, a suburb of

Adelaide, South Australia Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

Early history

Sir George Strickland Kingston purchased eighty

acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

s (32

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s) of land in 1839 in the area now known as

Kingston Park Kingston Park is a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, about north west of the city centre. It is home to several large retailers, the largest being one of Tesco's flagship stores—at 11,055 square metres (119,000 sq ft) which was also t ...

. The house was built in two stages, firstly in 1840 and then in 1851. As such it is the oldest building in Holdfast Bay City Council and one of the oldest in the state of South Australia. In 1840 Kingston leased the premises to fellow ''Cygnet'' passenger, Robert Bristow, who began the first hotel in the Brighton-Marino district. Bristow was granted a licence to sell beer and wine in September 1840. Patronage for the inn was expected from fishermen, quarrymen and sailors given the nearby fishing village, newly opened quarry and newly built pier. Management changed hands in late 1841 to Mr Burslem who maintained it as the ''Marino Hotel and Boarding House'' until 1843. From then until 1851, Kingston leased the land to farmer Samual Oakley. In 1851 Kingston undertook extensions and renovations in preparation for this to become his family's seaside holiday abode. Ownership was passed down to his son,

Charles Kingston Charles Cameron Kingston (22 October 1850 – 11 May 1908) was an Australian politician. From 1893 to 1899 he was a radical liberal Premier of South Australia, occupying this office with the support of Labor, which in the House of Assembly ...

, Premier of South Australia.

Government ownership

The land and building was purchased in 1919 by the State Government of South Australia, upon Lucy Kingston's ''(widow of Charles)'' death. A major restoration was undertaken in 1983. The building is now set on a reserve sitting atop the Kingston Beach Cliff Face, and the house is surrounded by a small park. The building was listed on the now-defunct

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heri ...

on 21 March 1978 and on the

South Australian Heritage Register The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia. It extends legal protection regarding demolition and development under the ''Heritage Places Act 1993'' ...

on 24 June 1980.

References

{{reflist *Signage at location, erected by Holdfast Bay City Council *The History of Marion on the Sturt, by Alison Dolling *The Vanishing Sands, by Averil G. Hill

External links

information, images and virtual tour
Tourist attractions in South Australia Houses in Adelaide Victorian architecture in South Australia South Australian Heritage Register South Australian places listed on the defunct Register of the National Estate