|
| From Wrest
Point Casino looking across the marina
with Mount Wellington in the background
|
Hobart
Attractive and small state capital located on
the hills around the Derwent River.
Tasmania's capital city. Beautifully located on
the hills around the Derwent River.
Hobart is Tasmania's capital city. It is
unique amongst the state capitals in that it has
a strong sense of its colonial, nineteenth
century heritage and still happily enjoys the
notion that it is nothing more than a big
country town.
Named after Robert Hobart, Secretary of State
for War and the Colonies at the time of its
settlement, it is Tasmania's chief port.
Climate
It is protected from the worst of the island's
weather and consequently has an average annual
rainfall of 630 mm and a temperature range from
a summer monthly average of 21°C (February) to a
winter monthly average of 11°C (July). These
figures tend to hide the fact that it often
snows in winter on Mount Welling ton just behind
Hobart and that it rarely experiences truly hot
days in midsummer, although this is a case of
definition with many days reaching beyond 30°C.
The city lies on either side of the Derwent
River and is partially protected by Mount
Wellington in the west, which dominates the
landscape from a height of 1270 m, and Mount
Nelson to the south. This dramatic landscape
actually results in a series of microclimates
which produce considerable variations within the
city. The western suburbs experience more rain
and the southern suburbs have mild on-shore
breezes during the summer months. In part this
is what makes Battery Point Hobart's most
desirable address.
Population
The population of the city is relatively stable.
There were 164 400 people in 1976 and this had
risen by less than 10 000 by 1983 when the
population was 173 700 and less than another 10
000 to 183 500 in 1990. The stability and
smallness of the population means that house
prices, unlike every mainland city, have
remained relatively low. Equally job
opportunities in the city are limited.
Tasmania is the most non-urbanised of all the
Australian states with only 40.2 per cent of its
population living in, Hobart, the capital city.
This compares dramatically with New South Wales,
where 74.7 per cent of the state's population
live in Sydney, Wollongong or Newcastle and even
the Northern Territory where 46.6 per cent of
the population live in Darwin.
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| Constitution
Dock at night time |
Hobart's Beauty
It is widely recognised that Hobart is one of
Australia's most beautiful cities. Its location
on the Derwent, its straggling, irregular
appearance, and the distinctive old world charm
of its docklands and port have often been
written about in the most glowing terms.
Mark Twain, in his book Following the Equator
(he was obviously seriously off-course when he
visited Hobart), offered a eulogy to the city's
charms:
'How beautiful is the whole region, for form,
and grouping, and opulence, and freshness of
foliage, and variety of colour, and grace and
shapeliness of the hills, the capes, the
promontories; and then, the splendour of the
sunlight, the dim, rich distances, the charm of
the water-glimpses! And it was in this paradise
that the yellow-liveried convicts were landed,
and the Corps-bandits quartered, and the wanton
slaughter of the kangaroo-chasing black
innocents consummated on that autumn day in May,
in the brutish old time. It was all out of
keeping with the place, a sort of bringing of
heaven and hell together.'
Hobart's History
Hobart had the most inauspicious of beginnings.
Its sole raison d'etre was to keep the French
out of Australia. Fearful that the French might
try to establish a colony on the island Governor
Philip Gidley King sent Lieutenant John Bowen,
with a party of 49 including 35 convicts, to
establish a settlement on the Derwent River.
The town's economic raison d'etre was as a
port. In its early days it must have been a wild
and unruly place. One historian has written on
the population of early Hobart:
'Such a hard and inhospitable place
inevitably attracted a certain kind of person.
By the 1820s the flotsam and jetsam of the
world, men seeking refuge from the law or
seeking isolation from other human beings, has
been drawn to the shores of the island. Some of
the men came as convicts and were emancipated;
some came as convicts and fled into the bush;
and some walked off boats and ships in Hobart
Town or Launceston and became sealers, whalers,
farm hands or drifters. They were rough
frontiersmen. Not frontiersmen in the sense of
opening up new land; frontiersmen in the sense
that they despoiled and exploited everything and
everyone they saw. It was against these men's
natures to form a 'posse' to join forces with
the military. They had laws of their won and
those laws had nothing to do with the statutes
and regulations which were being formulated in
London.'
By 1827 Hobart was a thriving port with an
estimated population of 5 000. It was the centre
of trade not only for Tasmania but also for the
sealers operating on the islands in Bass Strait
and the whalers who were sailing the southern
oceans. Its chief exports included sealskins and
whale oil as well as hides, wool and an extract
derived from wattle. Ships from Europe, China,
Batavia, Singapore and the United States all
used the port.
The problem of Hobart was that it was always
at the mercy of trade. It has no enduring
economic base and the hinterland it served was
simply not large or diverse enough to sustain
its existence.
By the 1830s the sealing trade had virtually
disappeared. Whaling continued but the need to
find an additional industry led to the
establishment of considerable shipbuilding
facilities. The quality of Tasmanian hardwoods,
combined with the excellent port facilities,
meant that by the 1850s Hobart was building more
ships than all the other Australian ports
combined. The inevitable march of technology saw
ship design change to vessels driven by steam
and manufactured out of steel. Hobart's
timber-based shipbuilding industry was in
decline by the end of the century.
Since World War I Hobart's economic
livelihood, particularly in an industrial
context, has been largely determined by the
cheapness of its hydro electric power. This has
given the city a small industrial base. However
by the standards of the mainland cities Hobart
is the least industrialised of all the state
capitals.
At Boyer, near Hobart, there is an Australian
Newsprint Mill which exploits the state's
combination of timber reserves, hydro
electricity and water supply. Risdon on the
north eastern shore of the Derwent has an
industrial area where electrolytic zinc,
superphosphate and sulphuric acid are produced.
Apart from these heavy industries the city is
dependent on light industry. There is a cannery
and a number of fruit processing works.
Furniture manufacture, silk and textile printing
and the manufacture of soft drinks are typical
light industry activities.
Perhaps the most famous of Hobart's light
industries is the Cadbury factory at Claremont
where chocolates and confectionery have been
manufactured since 1920. The complex now covers
an area of over 100 ha and is owned by the
multinational Cadbury-Schweppes company.
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| Wrest Point
Casino from Battery Point
|
In recent times tourism to the city has
increased significantly fuelled by the
establishment of Australia's first legal casino
at Sandy Bay. The Wrest Point Hotel-Casino, with
its distinctive 64 m high cylindrical tower, now
has a number of competitors on the mainland
states but still attracts significant numbers of
tourists to its gambling tables.
In recent times Tasmania has become a popular
retreat for people wishing to practice an
alternative lifestyle. The Huon Valley and the
rural areas around Hobart have been settled by
potters, woodworkers and craftspeople who sell
their wares in the gift shops which have sprung
up in the city centre.
There is a very real possibility that Hobart
will always lag behind its mainland
counterparts. There is no reason why it
shouldn't remain as a colonial outpost at the
edge of the world. It is hard to imagine that
the city will ever develop a late twentieth
century high rise skyline and there seems little
possibility that it will ever experience an
economic boom which will force it to abandon its
distinctive nineteenth century charm.
Things to see:
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The City's Major Attractions
It is widely accepted that the highlights of the
city include the magnificent Botanical Gardens,
the untouched historic charm of Battery Point,
the mixture of history and modern charm to be
found around the docks and Salamanca Place, and
the density of historic building in the city's
central business district. Beyond these
essentially historic explorations there are also
a number of trips around the city - the most
popular of which are the journey up Mount
Wellington and the boat trips to the Cadbury
factory, down the Derwent and through the
D'Entrecasteaux Channel.
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| Tasman Bridge
over the Derwent |
The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens
The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens lie on the
banks of the Derwent River just beyond
Government House. The land was originally a 50
acre (20.2 ha) grant to a farmer, John Hangan,
in 1806. By 1826, with a widespread agreement
that Hobart Town should be the capital of Van
Diemen's Land, Governor Arthur had plans drawn
up for Government House and an adjoining Botanic
Gardens. The Gardens first superintendent,
William Davidson, was appointed in 1828. He was
paid £100 per year and given a house (which
still stands in the gardens) which was built in
1829. Over the next five years Davidson imported
plants from England while, at the same time,
collecting over 150 native species from Mount
Wellington. The garden grew progressively during
the nineteenth century. An interesting footnote
from this period is the fact that Martin Cash
(distant relative of Pat Cash and more famously
one of Van Diemen's Land's most notorious
bushrangers) worked as an overseer in the
gardens between 1854-56.
An excellent map and comprehensive history of
the gardens is provided in the brochure Let's
talk about the Royal Tasmanian Botanical
Gardens. The brochure provides details about the
historic Arthur Wall (built by Governor Arthur
in 1829), the Rossbank Observatory site (the
site of an observatory built by Governor
Franklin in 1840), the Conservatory, Rosarium,
Floral Clock, Fern House and Tropical
Glasshouse.
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| A street
scene in Battery Point
|
Battery Point
Battery Point has no equal in any other
Australian city. It is a much superior Tasmanian
equivalent of the Rocks area in Sydney but,
whereas the Rocks are a real tourist haunt,
Battery Point is a very elegant 'suburb' with an
extraordinary concentration of beautifully
preserved nineteenth century houses.
The only way to experience Battery Point is
to simply walk up Kelly's Steps (probably built
for Captain James Kelly in 1839-40) from
Salamanca Place and start wandering through the
winding streets. Every corner offers a surprise
and every streetscape is characterised by charm
and elegance.
Battery Point gets its name from the Mulgrave
battery of guns which were mounted on the
headland in 1818. This naming comes relatively
late as the point was settled by Europeans as
early as 1804. Up until the 1830s the point was
primarily rural but it was around this time that
building started with the completion of Stowell
and Secheron House (built around 1831 and
located at 21 Secheron Road) and the
construction of the impressive warehouses which
still stand in Salamanca Place.
By 1850 Salamanca Place and Battery Point had
become the marine focal point of the city.
Sailors from all over the world came to the area
- some lived in the houses on the point, others
used the numerous pubs around the docks for
shoreside recreation - and sailors' and workers'
cottages were built in an area which was already
noted for its gracious Georgian mansions. In
this sense Battery Point is a unique combination
of living styles. Neat, tiny cottages owned by
working people stand next to mansions in an
streetscape which includes roads which wind
around the point and even 'village greens'
designed to mimic the streets of rural and urban
England.
The most impressive and famous building in
Battery Point is St George's Church (or, more
particularly, its tower). The church was built
between 1836-38 and the tower, a James Blackburn
design, was added in 1847. It is regarded as the
finest Greek Revival Church in Australia with
its impressive Doric portico and decorative
carvings.
A number of the cottages at Battery Point are
used as guest houses. Barton Cottage at 72
Hampden Road was built in 1837 by Captain
William Wilson and now is used as a bed and
breakfast facility. Similarly Colville Cottage
(1877) at 32 Mona Street, Cromwell Cottage
(1880) at 6 Cromwell Street, and the impressive
two-storey Tantallon Lodge (1906) at 8 Mona
Street, all provide unique and historic
accommodation.
It is fun to explore Battery Point enjoying
the sense of surprise offered by the whole area.
If you want something a little more organised
the National Trust offers conducted walking
tours on Saturday mornings.
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| Salamanca
Place |
History and modern charm around the docks
and Salamanca Place
If there is a central point to Hobart is must be
the docks and Salamanca Place. It is here, every
year, that the victorious yacht which has led
the fleet from Sydney-Hobart arrives. It is here
that, each weekend, locals and visitors mix and
mingle in the excellent Salamanca Markets. And,
it is here, that the old Georgian warehouses
(built between 1830-50) have been converted into
excellent restaurants, galleries, craft and gift
shops. It is widely recognised that the
Salamanca Place warehouses are the finest
dockside Georgian warehouses remaining in
Australia. Although built at different times and
without any apparent architectural consistency
they form a coherent whole partly because of the
consistent use of stone and partly because they
seem to be in proportion to each other.
The Historic Buildings in the City
There is a pamphlet, Let's Talk About Hobart's
Historic Buildings, which concentrates on the
important historic buildings and sites in the
city's central business district. If you are not
overwhelmed by the buildings at Battery Point
and Salamanca Place it is worthwhile walking up
into the main part of the city and exploring
Davey and Macquarie Streets where there are
nearly sixty National Trust classification
buildings squeezed into two streets. The visitor
can see most of the important buildings by
completing a circuit from the City Hall up
Macquarie Street to Harrington Street then down
towards Salamanca Place and back along Davey
Street).
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| Government
Offices at the end of Salamanca Place
|
The buildings of particular note in the CBD
include the Commissariat Store (1808-10) at 40
Macquarie Street (Hobart's oldest building), the
Bond Store (1824) behind the Commissariat, the
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (1863) and the
Town Hall, with its impressive ballroom, which
was built in 1864.
The old Court House complex in Murray Street
incorporates the Supreme Court (1823-24), the
Treasury Offices (1859-64) and the Deeds Office
(1884). Over the road from the Court House,
although it now longer stands, was the site of
the colony's first gaol. Further up Macquarie
Street are the Tasmanian Club (1846), runs of
stone houses dating from the 1850s, St Joseph's
Church (1840).
In Davey Street, opposite St David's Park,
are a number of brick houses dating from the
1840s and 1850s. Next to St David's Park is the
Parliament House (first used in 1855) and
beyond, in Murray Street, is the Customs House
Hotel (first licensed in 1844).
Of particular note is the Theatre Royal at 29
Campbell Street which was built in 1837 and is
recognised as the oldest theatre in Australia.
The spectacular Georgian interior is a reminder
of the possibility for sophistication which
existed in the colonies in the 1830s. It is
claimed that the theatre has a ghost. Perhaps,
more significantly, the stage has been such
theatrical luminaries as Laurence Olivier and
Noel Coward.
Anglesea Barracks
Further up Davey Street are the Anglesea
Barracks. Built in 1814 they are recognised as
the oldest military establishment still in use
in Australia. A pamphlet Let's Talk About
Anglesea Barracks provides a detailed history of
the barracks and a map with details of each of
the major buildings in the complex.
The barracks were originally built on the
instructions of Governor Lachlan Macquarie who,
during his visit to Van Diemen's Land in 1811,
became concerned about the inadequate facilities
for the military in Hobart. Over the next decade
(it seems that Macquarie's enthusiasm wasn't
matched by the local authorities) the Barracks
were built with the foundation stone being laid
in 1814 and troops occupying some of the
buildings by 1818.
Any tour of the barracks should include the
Guard House (1838), the Hospital (1818), the
Military Gaol (1846), the Officers Quarters
(1814) and the Old Drill Hall (1824). It is
possible to visit the Barracks from Monday to
Friday between 8.00 am - 10.00 pm however, at
this time, many of the buildings are not open to
the public. A free guided tour is held every
Tuesday at 11.00 am.
Mount Wellington
Towering over the city is Mount Wellington which
is 1270 m high. Often mistaken for a dormant
volcano it is in fact an igneous intrusion known
to geologists as a sill. The dolerite rock which
makes the mountain was emplaced in a molten
state (known as 'magma') about 175 million years
ago but it never reached the Earth's surface at
the time of its emplacement and so could not
form a volcano. What happened was that once the
molten magma reached a certain level during its
upward movement through the Earth's crust, it
spread out laterally in a sheet-like form,
bodily lifting the horizontal sedimentary strata
which still lay above it, and them cooling
slowly to form the present rock. This type of
'igneous intrusion' is called a 'sill', and the
vertical columns which characterise the present
Tasmanian dolerite landforms formed as a result
of contraction during the cooling. In the case
of Mt Wellington and many other Tasmanian peaks,
the sedimentary strata which originally overlaid
the dolerite have since been removed by erosion.
Mount Wellington was first sighted by Captain
Bligh in 1785 and named Table Hill. In Christmas
Day 1798 George Bass became the first European
to climb the mountain and to enjoy the
spectacular view across the Derwent River and
down the D'Entrecasteaux Channel.
It has become one of the major sites of
Hobart and over the years it has been climbed by
such famous people as Charles Darwin (he took 5
hours to reach the summit in 1836), Lady
Franklin (reputedly the first white woman to
reach the summit in the late 1830s), and the
novelist Anthony Trollope who, having climbed it
in 1872, dismissed it as 'just enough of a
mountain to give excitement to ladies and
gentlemen in middle life'.
Risdon Cove
About 8 km up the Derwent River from Hobart is
Risdon Cove, the site of the first formal white
settlement of Tasmania. It was named after
William Risdon, the second officer on one of the
two ships which arrived in the area in 1793.
Settlement occurred at Risdon Cove in 1803 but
the soil was poor and within a year relocation
to Hobart had occurred. It is worth remembering,
while visiting this historic site, that there
was a major massacre of Aborigines here within
months of the establishment of the settlement.
It was the beginning of an act of genocide which
nearly wiped out all traces of the island's
original inhabitants.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service have
developed the site and there is an excellent
audio visual display in the visitor centre which
explains the story of the early British
settlement of the island.
Boat trips to the Cadbury factory
Every city has its major tourist attraction and
a boat trip to chocolate heaven seems to be
amongst the most popular in Hobart. The Derwent
Explorer departs from the Brooke Street Pier,
Franklin Wharf and makes its way up river to the
Cadbury factory at Claremont where, apart from
the educational interest of seeing chocolate
being produced, the visitor gets an opportunity
to sample and to purchase the product.
Other Cruises
A number of other cruises are available which,
avoiding chocolate, go around the harbour and
down the Derwent and through the D'Entrecasteaux
Channel.
The history of the city, the bustling weekend
markets at Salamanca Place, the proximity of
Australia's most famous convict ruins at Port
Arthur, and the sense of being in another
country, all add to the appeal of the city.
Rafting the Franklin
Peregrine Travel operate a rafting expedition on
the Franklin River which departs from Hobart on
Sundays between November and April. The Lower
Franklin Wilderness Expedition departs on
Fridays between November and April, tel: (03)
9662 2700 or the Peregrine Travel office in your
state capital.
This Week in Tasmania, a free guide widely
available in hotels and tourist places in
Hobart, offers an extensive guide to
restaurants, hotels and motels in the city
centre. The inevitable drawing power of the
seafood restaurants around Constitution Dock is
essential for anyone wanting to enjoy reasonably
priced, and deliciously fresh, seafood.
