automobile", Taroona was from the beginning a commuter suburb, and it has a notable absence of commercial or retail premises, many of the early retail enterprises having lost the battle with larger supermarkets elsewhere. 1967 bushfires In February 1967, southern Tasmania was engulfed in the most vicious wildfires on record, resulting in many deaths. Taroona was the closest suburb to the city of Hobart to take the full brunt of the fires, which swept across the suburb in the mid afternoon, wreaking havoc, and destroying many homes. Children and residents fled to the river, and many people's survival was due to the refuge the safe waters provided. Establishment of Taroona High School In 1958 a public High School was established on a large parcel of land on the Channel Highway central to the suburb, and with a frontage on to the foreshore of the Derwent River. In 1960 the Taroona Primary School re-located to the same site, from an older building further south on the Channel Highway. Those original primary school buildings were adapted for kindergarten and pre-school but were burnt down by an arsonist in 1974. The kindergarten and pre-school were then re-built adjacent to the primary school. Taroona High School and Taroona Primary school are completely separate educational institutions, although they do share one oval. Originally the high school catered for grades 7 to 11, but with the establishment of the separate Matriculation College system in 1962 the grade 11 students were transferred to the Hobart Matriculation College. At its maximum the enrolments at Taroona High School were about 1200 in the 1960s, with students traveling from Ferntree, South Hobart, Sandy Bay, Battery Point, Kingston, Blackmans Bay, and several centers further south. There are now approximately 1150 students in high school, now only drawing students from the southern suburbs of Hobart. The current principal is Matthew Bennell. Notable persons Taroona was the childhood home of Tasmanian-born Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark, who attended the river-side Taroona High School before completing her high schooling at Mount Nelson's Hobart College and embarking on her tertiary degree at the University of Tasmania. In the arts, lead vocalist of The Seekers, Judith Durham (born Judith Mavis Cock, 3 July 1943) lived in Taroona as a young girl, and attended the Fahan School in Sandy Bay before moving back to Melbourne in 1956. She joined The Seekers in 1963. Gwen Harwood, poet and