[1] It is a small rural community 28 kilometres (17 mi) north of Hobart, in the south-east of Tasmania.

Pontville was sited by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1821, and was an early garrison town, where convicts built the bridge over the Jordan River.

[4] Epsom House is an historic building originally built as a coaching inn, The Blacksmith's Arms, around 1831, by retired sergeant James Bunyip.

It was restored in the 21st century as an entertainment venue, with the ballroom hosting the Australian String Quartet in 2006 in what may have been the first public performance there in 100 years.

[3][8] The Federal Government announced in April 2011 that it would spend $15 million on converting the army rifle range to an asylum-seeker detention centre, housing 400 people, mainly single adult men, although the Pontville Immigration Detention Centre was also used to house under-age males.