It is located about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) south of the town of Kingston.

[1] Tinderbox is also part of the Greater Hobart statistical area.

The locality is said to be named after a sterling silver tinderbox found on the beach in the 1830s.

[3] a silver tinderbox inscribed in French, an indication that some thirty years before early French expeditioners, perhaps with Baudin, maybe with Bruny D’Entrecasteaux, had visited this beach[4]North-West Bay forms the western boundary, D'Entrecasteaux Channel the southern, and the Derwent River the eastern.

[5] The C624 route (Tinderbox Road) enters from the north and runs south-west, south, east and north, thus completing almost a complete loop of the locality before exiting in the north-east.