After arriving in Kingston, I went with Ray and Molly (the dog) to the beach while Chris got dinner started.  For all those in Kingston, Ontario who are trying to get and keep dog parks, Kingston, Tasmania has a no leash dog beach.  Just to the right of the dog in this picture you can see a little inlet, which is the dividing line between the dog and people beach and the people only beach.

Looking south you can see the headland and a little white dot, which is a lighthouse.  If you head south from here in about 1000 NM you will raise Antarctica.

The next morning we went for a drive around the environs of Kingston and Hobart.  Here you can see the Richmond Bridge spanning the Coal River (so named because of the discovery of coal in the area by early settlers).  Built in 1823 and originally named Bigge's Bridge, it is Australia's oldest bridge still in use.  It was built by convicts from sandstone quarried at Butchers Hill and hauled by and carts to the bridge site.

We stopped in Richmond for lunch, where I was introduced to traditional Tasmanian scallop pies at a local bakery.  Encased in a very tender crust the whole scallops came in a creamy curry sauce.  If ever in Tasmania I highly recommend this local specialty.

Here you see the Richmond Goal, built in 1825.  The Goal was built in 1825 as part of Governor Arthur’s system of police districts.  The building on the right was added in the 1830s.  The building was last used as a goal in 1928.  It stands as Australia’s oldest existing goal (in original preservation).

Here you can see both the 26m (large white) array and the 14m (just visible to the left and forward of the 26m array) array of the Mount Pleasant Observatory; part of the University of Hobart.  Located at 42 degrees, 48 minutes, 18 seconds South Latitude, 147 degrees, 26 minutes, 21 seconds East Longitude it is 43m above sea level.  Equipped with a variety of receivers it can operate between 660 MHz and 22 GHz making it a vital element in the Australian Long Baseline Array network.

From atop the Queen's Domain, the pinnacle of the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens you can look to the north to see the suburbs of Hobart,

In the background you can see the masts and spars of various sailboats and fishing boats.  In the foreground you see a fountain commissioned by the Bank of New South Wales for its, then, new head office in Sydney in 1971.  With corporate takeovers and changes in ownership the fountain was moved here in 1998 when Westpac opened a new head office.

Looking up the Argyle Street you can see the stylized streetlights looking a bit like lighthouses, and the Tasmanian Art Gallery.  Across Argyle Street from the gallery is the Maritime Museum of Tasmania where we spent about an hour learning about the importance of the maritime environment and economy on Tasmania.

This is the Marine Board building, typical of the cities early architectural style.

And here is the Tasmanian State Parliament House, built in 1856.  Tasmania has a bicameral parliament made up of a House of Assembly (lower house) and a Legislative Council (upper house).  Both houses are elected.  The Legislative Council was established in 1825 as the original legislative body in Tasmania (then Van Diemen's Land) it is the only House of Parliament in the Commonwealth that has never been controlled by any government or any political party. It has always had a majority of independent members making it a truly genuine House of Review.