Hobart

Hobart from the Eastern Shore

The state capital of Tasmania, Australia, Hobart is a city of 191,169 (census 2001) people on the estuary of the Derwent River in the state's south-east.

Located largely on steep hills up to the often snow-covered peak of Mount Wellington (approximately 1270 metres high), this picturesque little city is a busy seaport, notably serving as the home port for Australia's Antarctic activities, and supports several secondary industries (notably including a high-speed catamaran factory and a zinc smelter) as well as a vibrant tourist industry. Visitors come to the city to explore its historic inner suburbs, to visit the weekly craft market in Salamanca Place, as well as to use the town as a base from which to explore the rest of Tasmania.

Other local attractions include the Cadbury factory, and for a day trip places like Port Arthur, and the tesellated pavement, the Huon Valley, the Tahune Forest Air Walk, Cockle Bay( the southernmost point reachable by car) and the walk to South Cape Bay Beach which also forms part of a 6 day walk to South Western Tasmania.

Hobart is internationally famous among the yachting fraternity as the finish of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race which starts in Sydney on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas Day).

History

Hobart is the second-oldest city in Australia (behind Sydney). Amid British concerns over the presence of French explorers, the first settlement was started in 1803 as a penal colony at Risdon Cove on the eastern shores of the Derwent River. In 1804 it was moved to a better location at the present site of Hobart at Sullivan's Cove. The area's original inhabitants were members of the semi-nomadic Mouheneer tribe. A series of bloody encounters with the Europeans and the effects of diseases brought by the settlers forced away the aboriginal population, which was rapidly replaced by free settlers and the convict population.

Charles Darwin visited Hobart Town in February 1836 as part of the Beagle expedition. He writes of Hobart and the Derwent estuary in his Voyage of the Beagle

...The lower parts of the hills which skirt the bay are cleared; and the bright yellow fields of corn, and dark green ones of potatoes, appear very luxuriant... I was chiefly struck with the comparative fewness of the large houses, either built or building. Hobart Town, from the census of 1835, contained 13,826 inhabitants, and the whole of Tasmania 36,505.

But since the Derwent River was one of Australia's finest deepwater ports and was the center of the Southern Ocean whaling and seal trade, it rapidly grew into a major port, and became a city in 1842.

The penal colony was removed since new settlers were establishing farms and houses and did not like mixing with prisoners. Penal colonies were then moved to places such as Maria Island and Port Arthur. Hobart Town was renamed Hobart in 1875. (history needed here, including penal colony, seal and whalers, postwar economic decline)

View from the port of the city centre and Mt. Wellington

See also:

Local Government Areas of Tasmania