Hobart, Tasmania
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The capital and largest city of the state of Tasmania south of the mainland of Australia. It’s not a metropolis like Sydney or Melbourne, but very pleasant and characterful all the same. Plus it is the jumping-off point for tours to Port Arthur.
More background info: Hobart was founded, as a British penal colony, at the beginning of the 19th century, making it the second oldest colonial settlement in Australia (after Sydney).
After the convict transports ended from the middle of the 1800s, Hobart remained an important place thanks to its deepwater harbour and various industries, in particular the huge zinc smelter established in 1916 (which today accounts for some 25% of all Tasmanian exports).
Tourism has become a major economic factor too – and was greatly boosted by the establishment of the MONA (Museum of Old and New Art – the largest private museum in the southern hemisphere), which is visited by a large proportion of visitors to Hobart, myself included. For many it is the main reason for coming here (whereas for me this was Port Arthur).
Hobart these days has about a quarter of a million inhabitants, so is much smaller than the other Australian state capitals, and hence has less of a metropolitan character than, say, Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane.
In terms of dark history, Hobart has had its share of atrocities committed against the Aboriginal population, with clashes and massacres happening right from the beginning of colonial settlement.
Hobart’s harbour was also for a long time a major port for whaling ships. Whaling continued well into the second half of the 20th century and wasn’t banned in Australia until 1978.
1975 saw the Tasman Bridge disaster, when a bulk ore freighter ship collided with the bridge’s concrete pylons causing it to collapse – on to the ship and into the River Derwent, killing twelve people, including five motorists who were on the bridge at the time and seven people on board the ship that caused the accident. The collapse of the bridge cut off eastern Hobart and people living there but working in the city centre had to go on a 90-minute commute round the upper reaches of the river, or use slow replacement ferries, until the reconstructed bridge was opened again in 1977.
What there is to see: The main reason for Hobart to feature on this website is not so much the city itself but the fact that it’s from where you can go on tours by coach to Tasmania’s premier dark-tourism site, which consequently has its own separate chapter here:
Other than that there’s a plaque by the shore towards the eastern end of the Tasman Bridge commemorating the 1975 disaster (see above), unveiled in the year 2000.
Hobart has two sites related to its convict history, the Hobart Convict Penitentiary on the edge of the city centre, and the Cascades Female Factory Historic Site. Of the former, only the chapel, built atop 36 solitary-confinement cells, remains. Visitation is by guided tour only, which includes sitting through a 40-minute film (Wed-Sun, four tours a day from 10 a.m., 35 AUD). Given this I decided to give it a miss. There’s also the fact that the penitentiary closed as early as 1853, so strictly speaking it falls outside the catchment period for dark tourism (see concept of dark tourism). So I don’t think I’ve missed out.
The same applies to the Cascades Female Factory in the south-east of Hobart, which I therefore also gave a miss. This site operated between 1828 and 1858 to house female convicts who had to do hard labour. At its peak it had as many as 1200 inmates at a time. Today it’s part of the Tasmanian Convict Trail and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. After extensive refurbishing works it reopened in 2022 with a new visitor centre (open daily 10-16.30h, 35 AUD, various guided tours throughout the day).
Female convicts are also commemorated by a group of sculptures at the inner city harbour, namely at the north-eastern end of Franklin Wharf at the corner with Hunter Street.
Also on the harbour front a bit to the south-west stands another group of sculptures, including one of an Antarctica explorer as well as various Antarctic animals in bronze.
Antarctica and its exploration are also the theme of the Mawson’s Hut Replica Museum. Douglas Mawson was the Australian equivalent to Ernest Shackleton, Robert F. Scott or Roald Amundsen. Mawson led the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1914, i.e. during the period known as the “Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration”. The original hut survives largely intact at Cape Denison in eastern Antarctica. The cramped interiors were supposed to house 18 men. The replica museum’s revenue contributes to the preservation of the remote original. The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., admission 15 AUD.
The famous MONA (Museum of Old and New Art – see also below) has a few darkish aspects in its collections too, such as a huge “deflated” tank made of leather, some spooky moving sculptures involving animal parts and/or skeletons, or some of the rather explicit sexually-themed works.
If you take the dedicated ferry service to get to MONA from central Hobart you’ll pass under the Tasman Bridge and also go past the huge Risdon zinc smelter plant (one of the largest in the whole world). The latter is over a hundred years old and rather controversial from an environmental point of view. Watch the maze of large-scale technology belching out plumes of gases as you zip past it. It’s quite a “dystopian” sight to behold.
Location: in the south-east of Tasmania, south of Australia, at the estuary of the River Derwent.
Google Maps locators:
Tasman Bridge disaster plaque: [-42.86419, 147.35005]
Former Convict Penitentiary: [-42.8773, 147.3269]
Cascades Female Factory Historic Site: [-42.8938, 147.2993]
Female convicts sculpture group: [-42.8819, 147.3357]
Antarctica sculptures: [-42.8822, 147.3351]
Mawson’s Hut Replica Museum: [-42.8831, 147.3323]
MONA: [-42.8125, 147.2609]
MONA ROMA pier in central Hobart: [-42.8848, 147.3328]
Risdon zinc smelter plant: [-42.8309, 147.3168]
Hobart airport: [-42.8367, 147.5061]
Access and costs: easy enough by plane; costs vary.
Details: For foreign visitors the only realistic way of getting to Hobart from the Australian mainland is by domestic flight. The airport lies to the east of the city, a ca. 30-minute taxi ride away. It has connections to Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and beyond.
The only alternative to flying, if you have your own vehicle, is taking the Spirit of Tasmania car ferry from Geelong near Melbourne. But this does not go to Hobart (I saw the ferry in its port – see photo below – but it must have been there for other reasons, perhaps undergoing repairs) but instead it goes to Devonport on the northern Tasmanian coast. So you’d have to drive to Hobart from there. (If you have a hire car check whether you are allowed to take it on a ferry – it may be excluded.)
Getting around Hobart’s compact central parts is perfectly doable on foot. If you need to go further (e.g. to the Cascades Female Factory Historic Site) there is public transport in the form of buses.
Accommodation options are in no short supply, covering various price levels. Shopping around pays off. I ended up opting for what is Australia’s oldest continuously run hotel, the historic Hadley Orient, which is perfectly located and reasonably priced.
In terms of food & drink, Hobart is a real gem. Foodies who are into seafood are in paradise here. There is even a group of restaurants with its very own fishing boats, delivering the freshest possible seafood directly to its kitchens. Those not into seafood can find plenty of alternatives, including various ethnic cuisines. And I had the very best meal of my entire Australia trip at the “Faro” restaurant at the MONA – truly innovative and experimental dishes with superb presentation in an artsy environment (including modernist performances in the background).
As in other larger Australian cities the craft beer revolution has left its mark on Hobart, and there’s also more than decent Tasmanian-grown wine. Whisky distilling has seen a boom in Tasmania, including Hobart, in recent years/decades. Some of the whiskies of the more prized brands can be painfully expensive, though.
Time required: When I went on my long Australia trip in 2024, I only had three nights and two full days in Hobart, one of which was taken up by a day trip to Port Arthur and the other mostly by visiting MONA, so I didn’t see all that much of Hobart in daylight. Had I wanted to visit the former penitentiary, female factory site and/or Mawson’s Hut Replica I would have needed at least another day. To do Hobart more exhaustively you’d probably need four days or even longer.
Combinations with other dark destinations: The prime dark site in Tasmania, visitable by guided coach tour from Hobart, is Port Arthur.
Other than that there are yet more sites on the Tasmanian Convict Trail, for which you’ll need your own (hire) car.
Or hop back to the mainland by domestic flight to Adelaide, Melbourne or Sydney, which all offer a range of dark-tourist attraction in themselves.
See also under Australia in general.
Combinations with non-dark destinations: The No. 1 top tourist attraction of Hobart these days is the world-famous MONA (Museum of Old and New Art – but with a clear emphasis on the contemporary). It really is a must-see destination in itself – and I spent a good few hours exploring the place. There are a couple of large works of art outdoors, but most of the collections are housed underground, including in huge cavernous halls and spooky tunnels. There are works by artists as famous as Andy Warhol (a row of Mao portraits) but also ones by less well-known names. The range is wide and quite a few contemporary works are rather confrontational, including in a sexually explicit way. This applies for instance to a wall featuring over a hundred plaster casts of female genitalia. This is also echoed in the museum’s gift shop, which has amongst its arty wares “cunt soap” and “cunt chocolate”. MONA is located quite a way out to the north of the city on a peninsula on the banks of the River Derwent. Though it’s possible to get there overland, the best way is to take the dedicated “MONA ROMA” fast ferry service from Brooke Street Pier at central Hobart’s waterfront. MONA, including the ferry, is a cashless operation, so you have to book and pay for everything online and ideally download their own app.
Hobart itself is rather pleasant, and far less high-rise dominated than other, bigger Australian cities. There’s lots of historic architecture around the central waterfront, including the very oldest public building here, which now houses the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery.
Head up Elizabeth Street and you come to a more bohemian part of North Hobart, with art galleries, craft beer breweries, quirky restaurants and so forth.
For those who feel even more energetic, Hobart’s “house mountain”, Mt Wellington (aka Kunanyi in the local Aboriginal language) beckons, offering plenty of hiking or mountain biking opportunities.
More natural wonders await all over Tasmania – you can easily spend an entire holiday there.
See also under Australia in general.
