Riverside is a residential suburb 4 kilometres north-west of the central business district of Launceston.  The West Tamar Highway runs through the suburb, adjoining Riverside to the West Tamar, which includes small towns, Beaconsfield, George Town and Beauty Point.  Riverside boasts a bustling shopping precinct, hotels and restaurants, several schools, swimming pool and a sporting precinct for AFL, soccer and cricket.  

Though mostly built in the 1960s, Riverside contains a wide range of buildings, with older brick and weatherboard style homes prominent along the West Tamar Highway and area's closer to the city, many of which being either Edwardian or Art Deco in style.