Joseph Moir

He is best known for building the Taroona Shot Tower, but also built St Mark's Anglican Church, Pontville, issued tokens in his own name during a currency shortage in the colony, and served as an alderman on Hobart City Council.

[1] In 1829, he emigrated with his elder brother John (c. 1807–1876)[2] to the colony of Van Diemen's Land (as Tasmania was then known), sailing on the North Briton from Leith to Hobart via The Cape of Good Hope.

He established a reputation for notable buildings such as St Mark's Anglican Church, Pontville, and was appointed to civic positions: Clerk of Public Works for the colony in 1834, then Commissioner under Hobart's 1846 Paving and Lighting Bill.

[3][20] With the latter, he soon established a successful ironmongers in Hobart at Economy House, Murray Street, advertising that he had "relinquished the business of Builder carried on by him for twenty years in Hobart" and had "arrived from England, per Eliza, with a large assortment of general Ironmongery suitable for this market, all having been selected by himself... from the principal manufacturers... of a quality hitherto unknown in the Colonies" and concluding that he could "recommend them with confidence, and at such prices as he hopes will secure the patronage of the public.

[23] Moir moved with his family to "Queenborough Glens" in 1862, a house at Taroona, along the Browns River Road seven miles south of Hobart, built on 39 acres of land which he had purchased in 1855.

[1][3] In 1870, Moir, together with two masons, constructed a shot tower at Queenborough Glens, using dressed curved sandstone blocks quarried at an abandoned Convict Probation Station nearby.

[1] Joseph operated the business for a few more years, then sold it to his brother-in-law, William Baynton, who continued manufacturing until 1905, when production ceased.

[29] His widow Elizabeth died 16 months later in 1875,[7] while his son Joseph Paxton lived until 1933 and his research on "Stone implements of the Tasmanian natives" was published by the Royal Anthropological Institute in 1900.