December 29, 2025 Hobart, Tasmania
The sun was shining in Hobart, Tasmania this morning. At 8 a.m. the temperature was 14°C wind 9 kph and humidity was 92%. Today’s high reached 28°C.
The ship arrived two hours earlier than planned to Hobart, since the Kangaroo Island stop was cancelled two days ago.
Hobart is the capital of the state Tasmania, located on the River Derwent estuary. It is Australia's second-oldest capital city after Sydney. The Sullivan Bay colony was founded as a penal colony. Within 20 years, it quickly became a key part of the British Empire’s convict transportation network. The town was named by the British official in charge of colonies, Sir Robert Hobart.
After breakfast we walked the 2.5 kilometres to the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, sightseeing as we strolled. Many of the buildings of Hunter street, just outside the terminal, were built in the 1830s by merchants. The oldest building was completed in 1820. From 1836 onward the Royal Engineers arrived to design, build and maintain the convict building. They also took an interest in designing and constructing other buildings from the local sandstone.
We stopped at the cenotaph to admire the view of the River Derwent and Mount Wellington, 4,170 feet above sea level. The cenotaph in the Queen’s Domain, was erected after the Great War. Now there are mentions of the wars in which Tasmanians fought in the 20th and 21st centuries. A casket of solid zinc, containing the names of 522 Tasmanians who died in the Great War, was placed in the base of the Memorial on ANZAC Day 1925. The cenotaph was officially unveiled on December 13, 1925. Plaques representing the Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Australian Navy, Australian Commonwealth Military Forces and Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps (added in 1991) are located on the sides of the 75 foot high granite obelisk. We walked away from the cenotaph towards the Bridge of Remembrance, a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Tasman Highway. On the other side is the Soldiers Memorial Avenue, with individual plaques raised slightly from the natural grassland, with the names of the Tasmanian soldiers who died in the Great War. A tree for each soldier was planted here in 1918 and 1919. A few more trees were added in 1926 including one for the Unknown Soldier. Total of 534 trees were planted. We followed the crushed rock path to the intersection to branch off to go to the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. With all the stops we took almost an hour to get to the gardens entrance.
We were greeted by a volunteer who was handing out maps of the gardens. She told us about the different gardens. The hydrangeas are in full bloom. Some flowers plants did not have labels. There was a lily pond, a fernery, collections of native plants to Tasmania, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In the Subantarctic Plant House, created in 2010, specimens from Macquarie Island are shown in a design replicating its appearance and environmental conditions using plants, mosses and rock collected from the Subantarctic Islands. The climate controlled temperature is 7.5°C.
Our peaceful wander among the gardens was shattered by grating squawks from white cockatoos flying from tree to tree as we neared the Floral Clock. There were curious plants - ones with bristle like seed pods, tiny purple flowers, ferns, white and yellow Asteraceae clusters, a spotted gum tree, red kangaroo paw flowers, different sizes of palms, Cape Snowbush from South Africa. There were many varieties of flowers in the mixed borders. In the French Explorers Collection in the pond is a Huon Pine sculpture called “Antipodean Voyage” which represents the bow and sails of a French ship. In particular the ships of French botanists, Labillardière on the D’Entrecasteux expedition (1791-1793) and Jean-Bapitiste Leschenault de la Tour on the Baudin voyage (1801-1803). The Huon pine was used to make repairs to the explorer’s ships.
There was a rose garden, a peaceful Japan Garden, a conservatory, a pineapple house which contained a dwarf banana tree. The Superintendent’s House was built in 1829 of locally quarried sandstone. At the Visitor Centre we stopped to look in the gift shop before returning back to the cruise terminal. We had accumulated over 9,400 steps. The return walk only took 30 minutes.
We met other passengers in the cruise terminal for a walking tour of old Hobart. We were divided into groups of ten. Our Guide was Matthew who gave us lots of history and interesting facts about Hobart during the 90 minute tour. The original Sydney to Hobart race was between several friends and took six days, 19 hours, more than three times as long as this year’s 80th Anniversary winning time.
Step count 13,196 and walking tour yet to go.
We started the Walk in Historical Hobart tour just outside the cruise terminal on Hunter Street. Mount Wellington can be seen prominently from anywhere in Hobart. Matthew began with a territory acknowledgement that the land was known as Nipaluna by the Palawa people. The harbour is naturally deep and a good supply of fresh water, from two rivers, was available to establish a settlement.
Able Tasman discovered Tasman Island in 1642 and named it Van Diemans Land but it was ignored for the next 130 years. A few streets away is the Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH) which is the tallest building in Hobart. Buildings cannot exceed 58 meters. That is the distance that molten lead needs to fall and cool to become round creating a cannonball.
In the early 1800s there was a low tide causeway leading to tiny Hunter Island where convicts were unloaded, beginning in 1803 to 1853. It was filled in within a decade and merchant warehouses of locally quarried sandstone were built. One of the earliest building, but in 1821, was on Hunter Island, the building was used to store whaling inventory like whale oil. More buildings on the short street were buildings associated with whaling and storehouses for imports. There is the former IXL Jam factory. Matthew pointed out sculptures nearby of the women convicts and a child convict. In the early 1800s after age seven the person was considered to know right from wrong and could be transported to Australia for their conviction penalty. We continued the walk viewing the sandstone buildings of the late 19th century. The Courthouse was built in 1902. We passed the Watergate and entered a Bond store where an elevator was installed in 1826 and is used today. The Commissario was built 1808-1810. At a corner was the oldest continuously licensed pub in Australia which opened in 1807. The original Tasmanian Museum opened 1861. Two storey Ingle House was built in 1864. The two main streets of Hobart, each 60 feet wide, run parallel to each other. They are one-way streets with Davey Street has traffic going south while Macquarie Street has traffic going north.
The Hobart Town Hotel was built in the mid 1800s, a renovation in 1929 is the current façade. The General Post Office was completed in 1905. The original Supreme Court of New South Wales house was completed in 1824 so trials could be held in Hobart rather than travelling to Sydney. In Salamanca Place, the new buildings of the Supreme Court complex were constructed in the late 1970s to consolidate the operations of the Supreme Court into one complex.
The corner of Macquarie and Murray have the law courts, the old jail, a church and a pub.
The oldest building of the Treasury and Finance department was built in 1824, designed by architects like John Lee Archer, a resident of Tasmania.
At Franklin Square we learned about Sir John and Lady Jane Franklin. Sir John Franklin was the Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land from 1837-1843. The colony was both a penal colony and a free colony, Franklin had the free colonists interests in mind rather the his predecessor’s attention on the penal systems crews. He later returned to England and organized an expedition the find the Northwest Passage. He died on this expedition, in the Erebus, which was beset in the ice-pack off the coast of King William's Land, on 11 June 1847, in sight of the North-West Passage which he had first set out to find nearly thirty years before, and of which he was officially recognized as the discoverer.
Next were three buildings the government printer in Art Deco style built in 1928, the government printer building built in 1858 and the private St. Mary’s Hospital built in 1847. We walked through St. David’s Park which was a cemetery from 1804 to 1872, but fell into disrepair from 1973 to 1925 when it became a park and many graves were moved. On the wall nearby many of the tombstones are secured to the wall as the streets sweeps down to Salamanca Place. This was the New Wharf, but the name was changed in 1834 to Salamanca in recognition of the place where the Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon.
At Salamanca is the Customs House and the Parliament House completed in 1859. There are several horse drawn carriages carrying tourists through the area. The tour ended at the monument to Able Tasman who planted a flag for the United Provinces, the name of the Dutch nation in 1643. The Whaler pub building nearby was erected in 1832.
On our own we found Kelly’s steps with Matthew’s help and climbed the 48 steps to Battery Point. The steps were constructed in 1839 with convict labour as a short cut for the residents of Battery Point to get to jobs on the wharf below.
Strolling the the streets of worker and manager houses from the mid 1800s we found a plaque in front of the former home, Rosebank, of Andrew Ingles Clark 1848-1907, a lawyer and politician. In 1896 on his fourth attempt the Electoral Act was amended to extend “the franchise and introducing in Hobart and Launceston proportional representation under what became known as the Hare-Clark voting system in his honour.” “Hare-Clark enables parties, groups and independents to be elected to the House of Assembly in proportion to their support in the division.”
We walked through Princes Park which opened in 1938 with views of Sullivan Cove. We found a different way to return to Salamanca Place. The New Wharf was renamed Salamanca in 1838. We took a break from walking at Irish Murphy’s pub having walked 5.35 km this afternoon and logging 18,979 steps so far.
Returning to the ship at the Elizabeth Street Pier was the area for the racing yachts to dock. We saw the winning yacht Comanche and another one, Palm Beach. Closer to our mooring was a sculpture on rocks of sea lions and penguins.
It was only a one kilometre walk back to the ship. The afternoon was sunny and warm. We had dinner with Elizabeth and Colin followed by Caramel Lattes from the Library Cafe. Tonight’s entertainer was comedy magician, Nick Nicholas who was quite funny. We departed the Sullivan Cove cruise terminal in Hobart at 11 p.m.
Total steps for the day 23,573
Comments
Post a Comment