12/04/2026
The first thing you see when you drive into Hobart across the Bridgewater Bridge is McDonalds.
The first thing you see when you drive into Kingston is again, McDonalds.
Kingborough seems to be terminally accelerating past "quaint small-ish town" head first into a cultureless wasteland satellite outer suburb of Hobart beige-washed with lifeless homogeneous subdivisions economically domineered by large corporate owned franchises and cardboard box housing developments. Any of the 3 ways you enter Kingston off the outlet you’ll be greeted by large corporate franchises. Any of the other local watering holes in Kingston are miserable syndicate-owned blocks of pokies, keno, drive through bottle shops, TV screens and bistro-quality slop to placate a drinking class.
The last identifiable semblance of genuine social "town" life in Kingborough sits largely in Kingston Beach; a sheltered beachside hamlet with a few small businesses, a pub, pizza shop, a couple of nice cafes and bars and a football oval with a large popular beach. Sadly the majority of the prime commercial property on Beach Rd is occupied by real estate vendors along a strip that would ideally (to me) be bustling with more pedestrian-friendly locally owned small businesses continuing a nice theme of beachside village, but if you’ve seen commercial rent rates these days you can probably understand..
Brick and mortar small businesses are being drowned out of existence by constantly running up against insane operational costs, council planning and building regulations, insurance premiums and a turbulent uncertain economy that could change dramatically at any minute.
For me it’s not about the pub or the live music, it’s about letting people have something that is a real tangible experience as we we disappear into a void of screen-based entertainment and anti-social networking. Even better if it’s a locally owned business. I could care less for the pub or the music, but what galvanises me is the fear of losing something that makes society a little less beige and miserable to be in for other people, because we are very quickly heading that way.
Save music at the Salty Dog. Let people HAVE SOMETHING.
