Moonah

A residential and commercial suburb 5km north of the Hobart CBD, Moonah was originally known as South Glenorchy and, with its colonial racecourse and village common, was a popular picnic retreat for early settlers. Moonah, which takes its name from the local Aboriginal word for gum tree, experienced a residential development surge in the early 1950s Hobart housing boom. Much of the land between the suburb and the city centre is taken up by the Queen's Domain, which embraces the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, Government House, sports fields and children's playgrounds. The gardens - featuring a large collection of native Tasmanian plants, the historic Arthur Wall built in 1829 and the Rossbank Observatory built by Governor Franklin in 1840 - once included a certain Martin Cash among its overseers. Cash, a distant relative of Australia's last men's Wimbledon singles champion, Pat Cash, was not only a noted green thumb, but he was also one of Tasmania's most notorious bushrangers. A cycle track skirts the Derwent River through this mid-city green belt.