Location
Kingston House is located overlooking St Vincent's Gulf in
the suburb of Kingston Park. It is 18 km south of the City of Adelaide
in South Australia.
Kingston Park Reserve
Kingston Park has existed as a recreational area since 1924. Twenty-four acres of the foreshore were declared a National Reserve and in 1927 the park was opened.
The beach marks the border between the long sandy swimming beaches of the Adelaide plains and the southern rocky ancient rocky cliffs of the Hallet Cove area.
The park contains two Norfolk Island Pines planted in the 1850s by George Strickland Kingston and his two sons. The pines are known locally as Pat and Charlie after George Strickland Kingston's two sons.
At the base of the spring adjacent the Kingston Park kiosk is a permanent spring. The spring plays a significant part in the creation stories of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide plains.
The ancestor Tjilbruke carried the body of his slain nephew down the coast from the place that's now Kingston Park to the tip of the (Fleurieu) Peninsula. At each place where the grieving giant stopped to shed tears, a freshwater spring welled from the ground.
John Dowie was commissioned to build a monument to commemorate Tjilbruke. Tjilbruke was mourning for his sister's dead son Kulultuwi, whom he carried to this spot. His tears can be seen today in the waters of the spring. John Dowie found the remarkable stone gneiss rock at Tungkillo.
"… right alongside a dirt road, and nearly with it were all the other stones we needed, the curious headstone, Kulultuwi, and all. In effect the whole monument was there, waiting for me to pick it up. It remains one of the strangest experiences of my life."