Bart Bear's Blog

Hobart is the capital of Tasmania. It was founded in 1803 as a penal settlement and, because of its superb harbour, quickly became a centre of whaling, sealing and shipbuilding. Actually, today the fastest ships in the world are built in Hobart by Incat engineering. Hobart is the second oldest Australian state capital, after Sydney. Just north-east of Hobart is the town of Richmond, and here you can see a model of just how Hobart was in the 1820s. The model village, Old Hobart Town, is historically accurate. It has all the buildings to scale and also has small people doing their daily chores. Visitors are given a map of both old and new Hobart so that you can check out how the parts of the city you know have changed. One big change is right where we stayed. The bottom photos show the dock area. The model shows Hunter Island, connected to the town by a causeway. The "now" photo is of the same area, looking along the causeway from the town (out of our hotel window). You can see that the area near the causeway has been filled in. Some of the old buildings are still there to the left of the roadway, but all of the area to the right of the road is reclaimed land. Our hotel is just where the old causeway joined the mainland. If you are interested in history, a visit to Old Hobart Town in Richmond is a must.

Labels: Tasmania