24 July 1980 Kingston House

On 24 July 1980 Marino, or Kingston House as it is now called, was placed on the Heritage Register as worthy of preservation. In 1839 George Strickland Kingston, who arrived in South Australia in September 1836 to be deputy Surveyor General to colonel Light and was later appointed in his stead, bought land on the cliffs south of Adelaide. A small dwelling was built and in 1840 was leased to Robert Barstow who used it as an inn called Marino. About 1851 Kingston made extensions to the building and used it as his summer residence. In 1880, suffering from ill health, he set out an a voyage, but died on the way to Bombay (Mumbai). The home became the property of his son, Charles Cameron Kingston, who was premier of the colony from 1893-99. He continued to live there for some of the time until his sudden death on 11 May 1908 at the age of 58. There were no children of his marriage and after his widow died in 1919 the house was left in the hands of a caretaker for some years and began to become run down. The property was taken over by the government in 1924 and used as a tourist hostel from 1927 and with the adjoining land became known as Kingston Park.

Eric Gunton, Gracious Homes of Colonial Adelaide, 1983, pp.75-76.