However there are no surface indications of the location of the site today, which lies buried by landfill under the playing fields of the former Geilston Bay High School.

Prior to the British colonisation of Tasmania, this land, part of the Oyster Bay region, had been occupied for possibly as long as 35,000 years[2] by the semi-nomadic Mumirimina people.

[7] Conditions for both farming and general dwelling would have been fairly primitive at that time, with few roads, travel to Hobart being only by boat, and constant threat of robbery by bushrangers: Withington (2009) notes that in February 1808, Parish was robbed by the violent bushrangers Richard Lemon and John Brown, the pair being apprehended by Mansfield with assistance of two others the following month, with Lemon resisting and being shot dead, and Brown captured and eventually hanged for his crimes in Sydney.

Geils, a military officer with aspirations to an eventual government role, was the son of a General Thomas Geils who had purchased a number of country estates in the latter's native Scotland, and it seems that the son planned to follow in his father's footsteps in his new adopted colony, purchasing and then developing the "Restdown" homestead at the original Bowen settlement site at Risdon Cove; via a land grant to his wife, he also owned property in Pittwater.

[9] Geils decided to resume his military career and accompany his regiment to Ceylon in 1814–1815, apparently never seeing Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land) again: in 1815 his father died in Scotland leaving him one of the latter's estates, that of Dumbuck in the parish of Old Kilpatrick, to which Geils appears to have located by around the end of the decade, having a daughter there in 1821 and a new house constructed for himself and his surviving family, Dumbuck House (still in existence and now a hotel), residing there until his death in 1843.

"[8][12] Ward's account, however, suggests that Geils spent most of his efforts (financial and time wise) developing his property "Restdown" at Risdon Cove.

Gregson lived on (mainly at Risdon) until 1874, however much of his property was offered for sale in 1867 (but apparently did not sell at that time), including "Lot 7: comprises about 51 acres, known as the LIME KILNS, which has supplied the town for upwards of 20 years.

The farm comprises 51 acres of good agricultural land fronting onto Geilstown Bay, and the quality of the lime stone is admitted to be excellent.

[8] Degraves' property portfolio, described as "The Risdon Estate" of 6,860 acres in total, was offered for sale by auction in 1890, the relevant portion here being described as "the Limeworks and Farm at Gielston [sic] Bay".

There was a good jetty at the head of the bay, and he had a twenty ton sailing craft to transport lime from the kilns for about ten years before the quarry was worked out.

"[17] The Zinc Company's requirement was for unprocessed limestone, which was shipped straight across the river to their works at Lutana for use in their metallurgical processes, rather than for the lime product previously output from the kilns, so the latter fell into disrepair and were eventually abandoned.

Several quarry pits remained (in a flooded state) until the late 1960s/early 1970s when they were filled in so that the area could be converted to playing fields associated with the construction of the new Geilston Bay High School, and can be seen in aerial photographs taken in the 1940s and 1960s (see "Gallery").

According to Christensen and Jones' account, the High School site also covered the remains of the disused lime kilns, which up till then had been "a favourite place for small children to go bird-nesting".

[23] In 1921, a property named "Geilston Park", was offered for sale described as "comprising 1,078 acres, situated on Main Road from Lindisfarne to East Risdon", with "Improvements compris[ing] new brick dwelling and substantial outbuildings.

Presumably the same property, by now substantially reduced in associated acreage, was offered for sale in 1940 as "Geilston Park", a "brick residence of 4 large main rooms ... together with a small cottage, 2-stall brick stable, and workshop", on a block of 41 acres of land, with a "long frontage on the Risdon Road and overlook[ing] Geilston Bay", following the 1939 death of its owner, one Ernest Alma Bellette, "Late of First Imperial Tasmanian Contingent, South Africa".

In 2022, a purpose built building for the Tasmanian Archives was completed at Geilston Bay to encompass its stored collection, which was previously housed at Berriedale on Hobart's western shore.

Road access to Hobart (via the East Derwent Highway) is similar to that of other northerly suburbs on the "Eastern Shore" such as its immediate neighbour to the south, Lindisfarne.

Today the travertine deposit is no longer visible, the site of the quarry workings now lying under the playing fields of the former Geilston Bay High School (see map plus aerial photographs reproduced below).

[36] A 2009 report conducted by the CSIRO recommended that home-grown vegetables vulnerable to the uptake of heavy metals including lettuce, spinach, carrot and beetroot should be grown in raised garden beds with a minimum depth of 30 centimetres (12 in) clean soil.

The data identified medium levels of air pollution in postcodes 7009 (Lutana, Derwent Park, Moonah, West Moonah), 7010 (Glenorchy, Rosetta, Montrose, Goodwood, Dowsing Point) and 7015 (Lindisfarne, Geilston Bay, Rose Bay) with average air contaminate readings of 40% NOx (nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2)), and sulfur dioxide (SO2) contributing 57% of airborne emissions.