Hobart and Surrounds

13 November - Hobart

Julie's brother Brett arrived around midday, we picked him up from the airport and checked him into a cabin at the same van park we were staying.  The next six days were spent showing him around Hobart and basically anywhere within 100klm from where we were staying. Some of the places we have already been too but the majority we had held off awaiting Brett's arrival.

First up we went to the top of Mt Wellington which offers wonderful panoramic views of Hobart, the Derwent River and the many bays and inlets of the Tasman Peninsula.

Hobart from Mt Wellington

Mt Wellington conquered

Dinner was held at the Drunken Admiral on Constitution Dock which is a great restaurant decked out like the interior of an old sailing ship. The three of us were squeezed into a two person bay - the food was really good.

The next day started by dropping the car off in Hobart for a service then while that was going on dodging some light showers in the city that led us to Kathmandu outdoor shop on Salamanca Place. Any of you with shares in Kathmandu will receive a healthy dividend this year courtesy of the three of us. 

Arthur's Circus, Battery Point, Hobart

A quick wander around Arthur's Circus, Battery Point was cut short by a message that the car was ready. Off to Mt Nelson we drove for lunch at the Signal Station Brasserie which has commanding views over Hobart. 

Lunch views at Signal Station Brasserie, Mt Nelson

Signal Station Brasserie

Taroona Shot Tower near Kingston Beach

Wanting to completely exhaust ourselves we went to the Shot Tower at Taroona. In the olden days rifle shot was made of lead. To make the little lead balls they had to melt the lead, put it in a sieve and let it dribble through and allow it to fall around 48 metres into a tub of water. The falling process cooled the lead as it formed into a ball. The barrel of water at the bottom of the tower merely completed the cooling process but did not influence the shape of the lead. The easy part was melting the lead, the hard part was finding something high enough to create the falling process. A tower was the answer. Hence a Shot Tower was born. The one in Taroona, Hobart was the first one built in Australia and produced very high quality shot.

Inside the Shot Tower

Top of Shot Tower

Built in just 11 months with metre thick walls at the bottom tapering to a half-metre thick at the top, the top is accessed by 300 wooden steps that spiral up the inside. For a mere $8 one can climb to the top via these stairs. We paid a mere $8 and climbed to the top. At the top the mere 40+klm winds blowing made walking around the top worse than the walking up the mere 300 steps inside the tower.  However we all walked around the top just to say we had done it.

View from the top of the Shot Tower

Because we hadn't done much today we all went for a walk along Seven Mile Beach in front of where we were staying before having dinner and falling into bed.

A walk along Seven Mile Beach

Salamanca Market Junkie

The next day was Saturday and what else is there to do in Hobart on a Saturday morning but go to the Salamanca Markets. The only better thing I can think of to do is not to go to the Salamanca Markets. After wandering around for an hour or so we saw nothing, ate nothing and bought nothing - markets .... why?

One of  the AmHudson's in Hobart

The other AmHudson in Hobart

This is an artwork - the whole room!

An aborted attempt to visit MONA the previous day, because it was closed due to an international chefs gathering, was reenacted with great success today. MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) is filled with great art works, some clever, others confronting and the rest confusing. iPhones are provided free with the modest entry fee. The phone tracks your location in the gallery and provides detailed explanations of what you are looking at. With this technological aid the level of understanding is greatly increased while confusion levels tend to remain the same.

Made from discarded incense ash, MONA

This is also an artwork

MONA's owners' car parks

For some of the exhibits the setting for the display is better that the actual exhibit. Throughout the whole of the museum in the background, strange music plays creating a wonderful atmosphere.  The ambience in this art gallery is really special and it is one of the best art galleries we have ever visited.

GASP flowers and some crazy lady (not public art)

Keeping with the acronyms, after MONA we visited GASP (Glenorchy Art and Sculpture Park) (otherwise known as Great Another Stupid Place) just nearby. An attempt to see it yesterday was also thwarted due to some sort of event going on just like MONA. Today it was open but everything in it had been stolen. Thank heavens Brett (an architect) was there who explained that nothing had been stolen and that buildings can be art in their own right. I still kept looking for the stolen art works to no avail.

GASP - one of understands and the other doesn't

Richmond cemetery

Next we were off to historic Richmond to visit its iconic 1832 convict built bridge, its beautiful church and the scariest cemetery I've ever been in. The old part of the cemetery was built on the side of a soft earthen hill. Over time the soft earth has given way and the tombstones are leaning at all sorts of angles. If ever there was a site for a scary movie in a cemetery this is it.  

Richmond church

Richmond bridge

Arriving home for dinner outside under the awning we went to bed because tomorrow was to be a long day.

Who said tomorrow never comes because today is yesterday's tomorrow and we left early in the morning to head to Port Arthur Convict Site. In the early 1830's England used to send all their convicts to Australia. As everyone now knows these convicts were the bright and inventive people in England at the time. The ones that could play cricket better, rugby league better - better at everything really. Look what is now left behind in England and one can see that this social experiment of the early 1830's was a failure for them and a success for Australia. Even the 10 pound Pom trade of the 1950's couldn't dilute the superiority that Australia still enjoys today.

Yes, it was raining for a change

Cell in solitary confinement (the separate quarters)

Separate Prison chapel

Port Arthur Penitentiary

We wandered around the site for half a day marvelling at the old buildings and imagining what life would have been like in its heyday. Ooh the quality of the football and cricket matches that would have been played on the grassy field in front of the penitentiary ruins. 

Church at Port Arthur

Included in our entry fee was a boat ride around the Isle of the Dead, a little island with 1100 burials on it. Convict graves were unmarked as their souls were owned by the state and not God or the church. Surprisingly, just offshore of this sad island was an Australian submarine floating on the surface. The boat skipper said it was extremely unusual to see one, with the last sighting being seven years ago.

Aussie submarine sighted as we take boat trip to Isle of the Dead

Tasman Arch (Julie and Brett top right)

Heading towards home, but not going there, we revisited Tasman Arch, the Devil's Kitchen and the wild cliffs of the Tasman Peninsula.

Having our fill of Port Arthur but not old ruins we took Brett to the Coal Mine Historic Site just up the road and then a little further on to Lime Bay to show him where we camped the week before. This was followed by a visit to Eaglehawk Neck and the dog line. The Neck is only a 100 metres or so wide and is the only land access to the Tasman Peninsula where Port Arthur lies. 13 vicious dogs were pegged across the isthmus to guard against any escaped convicts trying to cross. 

The dog line on Tasman Peninsula

A visit to the tessellated pavement and then to a spectacular lookout over the coast south to the Tasman Peninsula rounded off a great but big day for all of us.

Tessellated Pavement, Tasman Peninsula

Looking down the Tasman Peninsula

Getting a photo in the snow, Lake Dobson

Next day we headed northwest back to Mt Field National Park. The weather looked favourable to revisit Russell Falls and even more favourable for the possibility of snow up at Mt Field. The falls were again spectacular with the sun in just the right position to light up the cascading water. After all that effort (20 minute walk) a good coffee and brunch were in order at the cafe at the information centre.  

It still looked promising that the chance of snow up the top of Mt Field was likely, so we embarked on the 14 klm dirt road to the top. Despite the pessimism of the architect in the car, we did see snow and, much to my delight, a snowfall at the top! After taking photographs of the snow and snowing to prove that I was right and the architect not as right (wrong) we descended into more temperate climates.

Well all that success could only be rewarded with a visit to a whiskey distillery. NANT whiskey distillery in Bothwell was our next destination. The distillery has a lovely restaurant overlooking a little creek that feeds their water wheel that turns a gearing system that seems to do nothing else but look good. So it was here that we had a great lunch while I looked at the whiskey list. A sip was $28. A bottle was $205. I can't tell you what NANT whiskey tastes like but according to the reviews it is nice.

Nant Distillery

With our fill of fine food and no whiskey we headed home for dinner under the stars that were above the awning. So I also cannot tell you what the stars looked like because the awning was in the way.


So that, everyone, is a summary of our time in Hobart and its surrounds. A truly great place to visit made even more enjoyable by having Brett with us.

We dropped Brett off at the airport, between road closures for the visiting President of China here to sign a deal that will benefit China and the local farmers and increase prices for Australians. 

Our trip to Tasmania is entering its twilight period. We leave in a couple of weeks. We are now heading north towards Freycinet National Park with no real plans as yet. The next part of our adventure is yet to unfold and will form the next Post.

We really love travelling Tasmania. The weather is slowly starting to settle and is more predictable. It is getting warmer too.

So that's it for this Post. The next one will be from Freycinet or somewhere further north or west.