Montagu Bay

Montagu Bay is a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, located in the City of Clarence on the eastern shore of the Derwent River, about four kilometres from the city centre of greater Hobart.

Montagu Bay is a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, located in the City of Clarence on the eastern shore of the Derwent River, about four kilometres from the city centre of greater Hobart. It is a small primarily residential suburb located between Rosny, Rose Bay and Lindisfarne and is centred on a small bay of the same name, formerly known as Smelting Works Bay. The bay has a boat ramp and jetty, and is frequently filled with yachts and other vessels at anchor.

Montagu Bay and its neighbour Rosny were one of the first areas, along with nearby Bellerive to be settled on the eastern shore of Hobart's Derwent River, starting from the 1820s.The bay is referred to as "Smelting Works Bay" in the 1877 Tasmanian Gazetteer, and in that year there was a shark attack in the bay. In February 1914 the sale of allotments in "the Smelting Works Bay sub-division of the Rosny Estates" was announced, along with the arrangements for its conversion into a suburb of Hobart". The name originated from a smelting works in the area, managed for some time by early colonist George Whitcomb.They were attracted by a freshwater creek which ran into the bay, and still exists as an uncovered storm water canal. The name of a nearby street, Loinah Road, is derived from the local Aboriginal dialect word for "drinking place".The name "Montagu Bay" appears to come from Algernon Montagu, who was an Attorney General and the judge in the fledgling colony. He bought a property of 800 acres (3.2 km2) and house of 14 rooms in the area named Rosny House. It was believed the mansion stood on what is now Balaka Street in Rosny. Rosny House was later known as Montagu House, and was clearly marked on naval charts from 1863.

The Eastern Shore of Hobart was slow to develop in comparison to the areas located immediately around Hobart itself. Rosny and Montagu Bay remained a small settlement for most of the 19th century, and first half of the 20th century. The area really started to grow with the opening of the Hobart Bridge in 1943, which met the eastern shore in Montagu Bay.

The opening of the bridge caused rapid growth in the immediate suburbs, and Montagu Bay experienced a boom in housing, particularly Housing Department houses in the 1940s and 1950s. This growth led to pressure upon the bridge, which was replaced with the higher capacity Tasman Bridge in 1964, which also had its eastern point at Montagu Bay.

Montagu Bay featured in the world's spotlight in early 1975, when the bulk carrier Lake Illawarra crashed into the Tasman Bridge, bringing down a section of the roadway. The disaster response was co-ordinated from Montagu Bay Cricket Oval, as was the rebuilding process.

Since very early in its history, the Royal Hobart Regatta's famous trans-Derwent swim, a river crossing of approximately 1.5 km in incredibly strong currents, has begun from Montagu Bay. The swim was suspended for some years in the 1990s due to high pollution levels in the river, but the race has recently been re-incorporated into the regatta following a decline in the pollution levels.