Kingston, gazetted in the 1920s, is named after Charles Cameron Kingston. Kingston was the Premier of South Australia and later Minister for Trade and Customs in the first federal government. While he was premier, he passed legislation allowing women in South Australia to vote and in a world first to stand for election. He died in 1908 but apparently his body was exhumed in 2008 to determine his descendants, after apparently fathering many illegitimate children.
The streets here are named after explorers, local pioneers and Australian flora.
So I started my journey at the place I know best....part of 'old style Kingston'.. gorgeous heritage houses, majestic trees, hedges and a sort of English calmness about the place...
Then it was off past the railway station....
To explore the 'other side of the tracks'...the area known as the Causeway, where wooden cottages were built for construction workers in the 1920s. The cottages have gone but approximately 67 Government houses remain, with only three privately owned houses here, as well as the nearby Canberra Railway Museum.
I understand that this area is scheduled to be demolished to make way for further development, which is a bit sad given that some families have apparently lived their since Canberra was created...I must admit it does have a bit of an odd feel to it in parts.....
Its an odd mix of country, the 1970s and the 1950s in someways. At one stage, I turned the corner and found myself in the middle of the nowhere...
Or so I thought, it was actually a road to a heritage dairy cottage from the 1920s, where many causeway residents worked up until the 1950s...
Then I turned the corner again and the modern development that most people now know as Kingston appeared in the distance....
Before dealing with 'the Foreshore', I decided to explore the edge of the lake down past the Causeway where I had never been. Quite a beautiful spot....really wish I had a canoe some days...
Then it was off to the part of the suburb most people now know as Kingston...I love the food here but I really question some of the design features...surely this will look so dated and horrid in a few years...
I love the little parks that have sprung up around this part of Kingston though....
And the bird life they have brought with them...
Next stop was the old Kingston shops...the side most people would know...
And the hidden side...
This had been an epic journey already but before the day was over I needed to visit some of my favourite remaining places in Kingston....so I walked down towards Barton...
Past my favourite 'slanty flats'....
And the Narnia style gate...
Past the 'old Kingo' and Muse....still one of the best places in Canberra to eat, drink and buy books (yes, essentially heaven)...
Past the watching eye of a new friend...
To the old cricket ground with its birds, pine cones and feeling of calm...
And so ended my big day out in Kingston - a suburb of many contrasts as an old friend used to say.
