Hobart facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Hobart Tasmania
City Centre and surrounds General Post Office Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery Salamanca Place Parliament House Panorama; Tasman Bridge, River Derwent, kunanyi / Mount Wellington
Hobart Location in Australia
Population	252,639 (2023) (11th) 197,451 (urban) (2021)
• Density	145.7/km2 (377/sq mi) (2021)
Established	20 February 1804 (1804-02-20)
Elevation	17 m (56 ft)
Area	1,758.8 km2 (679.1 sq mi) (metropolitan)
Time zone	AEST (UTC+10)
• Summer (DST)	AEDT State: Tasmania. (UTC+11)
Location	38 km (24 mi) from Huonville 134 km (83 mi) from Swansea 198 km (123 mi) from Launceston 248 km (154 mi) from Queenstown 284 km (176 mi) from Devonport
LGA(s)	Cities City of Hobart City of Glenorchy City of Clarence Other LGAs Kingborough Council Brighton Council Sorell Council Derwent Valley Council
State electorate(s)	Clark Franklin Lyons
Federal Division(s)	Clark Franklin Lyons
Mean max temp Mean min temp Annual rainfall 17.6 °C 64 °F 9.0 °C 48 °F 565.3 mm 22.3 in

Hobart (ⁱ/ˈhoʊbɑːrt/ HOH-bart; (palawa kani: nipaluna) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly half of Tasmania's population, Hobart is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-smallest by population and area after Darwin if territories are taken into account. Its skyline is dominated by the 1,271-metre (4,170 ft) kunanyi / Mount Wellington, and its harbour forms the second-deepest natural port in the world, with much of the city's waterfront consisting of reclaimed land. The metropolitan area is often referred to as Greater Hobart, to differentiate it from the City of Hobart, one of the seven local government areas that cover the city. It has a mild maritime climate.

The city lies on country which was known by the local Muwinina people as nipaluna, a name which includes surrounding features such as kunanyi / Mount Wellington and timtumili minanya (River Derwent). Prior to British colonisation, the land had been occupied for possibly as long as 35,000 years by Aboriginal Tasmanians.

Founded in 1804 as a British penal colony, Hobart is Australia's second-oldest capital city after Sydney, New South Wales. Whaling quickly emerged as a major industry in the area, and for a time Hobart served as the Southern Ocean's main whaling port. Penal transportation ended in the 1850s, after which the city experienced periods of growth and decline. The early 20th century saw an economic boom on the back of mining, agriculture and other primary industries, and the loss of men who served in the world wars was counteracted by an influx of immigration. Despite the rise in migration from Asia and other non-English speaking regions, Hobart's population is predominantly ethnically Anglo-Celtic and has the highest percentage of Australian-born residents among Australia's capital cities.

Today, Hobart is the financial and administrative hub of Tasmania, serving as the home port for both Australian and French Antarctic operations and acting as a tourist destination, with over 1.192 million visitors in 2011–12, and 924,000 during 2022–23. Well-known drawcards include its convict-era architecture, Salamanca Market and the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), the Southern Hemisphere's largest private museum.

Name

In 1804, the settlement was named Hobart Town or Hobarton by the first Lt-governor David Collins after then British Secretary of State for war and the colonies Lord Hobart (a variant of Hubert, his name was pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable) at Sullivans Cove (named after the under-secretary). Earlier in 1793, Risdon Cove was named after the second officer on the ship Duke of Clarence by the captain John Hayes, and the river after the River Derwent, Cumbria (also briefly named by Bruni D'Entrecasteaux as La Rivière du Nord). The city was named the singular Hobart in 1881, and an inhabitant is known as a Hobartian.

Though the city is not officially dual-named, the 'saltwater country' of the western shore where the city is located has the Palawa kani name nipaluna which was originally documented on 16 January 1831 by George Augustus Robinson (as nibberloonne, later niberlooner) when he was told by Wurati, a Nununi chief from Bruny Island who spoke five dialects. Though the island is offshore, the language is related and in the same family as the Southeastern Tasmanian language which the local Muwinina people spoke. Another recorded name was an Oyster Bay word lebralawaggena (Bedford).

A semi-permanent settlement at Little Sandy Bay was called kriwa beneath the hill of kriwalayti. The dividing line of the region is the timtumili minanya (river), which winds its way down from the centre of the island through the lands of the Big River (Lemerina) people. On the eastern shore, the name for the Clarence Plains was known as naniyilipata by the Mumirimina, a group of the Oyster Bay (Poredareme) people. Droughty Point was known as trumanyapayna (kangaroo point) as it was a hunting ground, and South Arm as mutatayna. Later names by the TAC include piyura kitina (little native hens) at Risdon Cove and turikina truwala (mountain waterfall) on the Myrtle Gully Falls track.

History

The first European settlement began in 1803 as a military camp at Risdon Cove on the eastern shores of the River Derwent, amid British concerns over the presence of French explorers. It was the site of the 1804 Risdon Cove massacre. Later that year, along with the military, settlers and convicts from the abandoned Port Phillip settlement, the camp at Risdon Cove was moved by Captain David Collins to a better location at the present site of Hobart at Sullivans Cove.

The area's Indigenous inhabitants were members of the semi-nomadic Mouheneener tribe. Violent conflict with the European settlers, and the effects of diseases brought by them, dramatically reduced the Aboriginal population, which was rapidly replaced by free settlers and the convict population. In 1832, four years after martial law had been declared, 26 people, including Tongerlongeter (Tukalunginta) and Montpelliatta (Muntipiliyata) of the combined Big River and Oyster Bay nations, surrendered to G. A. Robinson's "friendly mission" and were marched into Hobart to negotiate a truce with Governor George Arthur. They were forcibly exiled ten days later to Flinders Island.

Charles Darwin visited Hobart Town in February 1836 as part of the Beagle expedition. He compares it to Sydney and compliments the "noble forest". He writes of Hobart and the Derwent estuary in The 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."

The River Derwent was one of Australia's finest deepwater ports and was the centre of South Seas whaling and sealing trades. The settlement rapidly grew into a major port, with allied industries such as shipbuilding. Hobart Town became a city on 21 August 1842, and was renamed Hobart from the beginning of 1881. The post-transportation era saw the city shift between periods of economic uncertainty in the 1860s and 1890s:

"...While brash Victorians talked of the future, Tasmanians nurtured memories of a more prosperous past. In the 'sixties Martineau found elderly ladies lamenting the gaiety of the old days and merchants the time when 'Hobart Town promised to be the emporium if not the metropolis of Australia'."

However, this was mixed in with evolving politics, a greater connection with mainland Australia, tourism in the 1880s and the establishment of important cultural and social institutions including The University of Tasmania. "When the Town Hall was opened in 1866 it symbolised the hope of future greatness for the city". The Russian navy visited the port multiple times, which had become a leading reason for the Hobart coastal defences. Mark Twain also visited in 1895 when he wrote "Hobart has a peculiarity—it is the neatest town that the sun shines on; and I incline to believe that it is also the cleanest."

On 7 September 1936, one of the last known surviving thylacines died at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart. During WW2, the city performed drills and built shelters, with German mines found in the estuary and a Japanese scout plane flyover in 1942. While Hobart was isolated, it also contained the not insignificant Electrolytic Zinc Company which was essential for ammunition production.

During the mid 20th century, the state and local governments invested in building Hobart's reputation as a tourist attraction - in 1956 the Lanherne Airport (now Hobart International Airport) was opened. Australia's first legal casino, Wrest Point Hotel Casino, opened in 1973. Despite these successes, Hobart faced significant challenges during the 20th century, including the 1967 Tasmanian fires, which claimed 64 lives in Hobart itself and destroyed over 1200 homes, and the 1975 Tasman Bridge disaster, when a bulk ore carrier collided with and destroyed the concrete span bridge that connected the city to its eastern suburbs.

In the 21st century, Hobart benefited as Tasmania's economy recovered from the 1990s recession, and the city's long-stagnant population growth began to reverse. A period of significant growth has followed, including the redevelopment of the former Macquarie Point railyards, Parliament Square, and new hotel developments throughout the city.

Geography

Topography

Hobart is located on the estuary of the River Derwent in the state's south-east. It is built predominantly on Jurassic dolerite around the foothills interspersed with smaller areas of Triassic siltstone and Permian mudstone, straddling the River Derwent.

The Western Shore extends from the Derwent Valley in the northwest through the flatter areas around Glenorchy (which rests on older Triassic sediment) bounded by peaks averaging around 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) (including kunanyi / Mount Wellington, Mt Hull, Mt Faulkner and Mt Dromedary). The hilly inner areas rest on the younger Jurassic dolerite deposits, before stretching into the lower areas such as the beaches of Sandy Bay in the south, while the City and Kingston are separated by hills and Taroona's Alum Cliffs. The Derwent estuary exits into Storm Bay wrapped by the South Arm Peninsula, Iron Pot and Betsey Island, with Turrakana / Tasman Peninsula and Bruny Island beyond.

The Eastern Shore also extends from the Derwent in a southeasterly direction hugging the Meehan Range (which hovers around 400 metres (1,300 ft) with distinctive summits such as Mt Direction and Gunners Quoin towards the irregular valleys of Brighton) before sprawling into flatter land in suburbs such as Bellerive. These flatter areas of the eastern shore rest on far younger Quaternary deposits. From there the city wraps around the estuary to peninsulas and extends across the hills in an easterly direction into the valley area of Rokeby, before reaching into the tidal flatland area of Lauderdale (between Ralphs Bay and Frederick Henry Bay).

Hobart has access to a number of beach areas including those in the Derwent estuary itself: Long Beach, Nutgrove Beach, Bellerive Beach, Cornelian Bay, Kingston, and Howrah Beaches, as well as many more in Frederick Henry Bay such as Seven Mile, Roaches, Cremorne, Clifton and Goats Beaches.

Ecology

Hobart is located on the edge of the Tasmanian South East and Tasmanian Southern Ranges IBRA bioregions as well as being surrounded by parts of the South-east Tasmania Important Bird Area (such as the Meehan and Wellington Ranges) which provide important habitat for Tasmanian birds. The East Risdon State Reserve contains the wattles Derwent cascade and Acacia riceana, as well as the rare or endangered Risdon peppermint and Eucalyptus morrisbyi. Other local plant species like heartleaf silver gum and the abundant blue gum are also planted horticulturally, while many exotic species were planted as a result of aesthetic preferences from British colonisation. Black peppermint, silver peppermint, blue wattle, blackwood, drooping sheoak and cherry ballart are another common woodland combination.

Threatened species of wildlife found in Hobart include the swift parrot, grey goshawk, Tasmanian masked owl, eastern barred bandicoot and eastern quoll. These amount to 11 species of fauna, 10 of flora and 4 vegetation communities. 5 of the threatened species are endemic to Hobart. A common sight within the city are pademelons and wallabies, and the Hobart Rivulet is home to platypuses. Wildlife groups and road safety advocates have highlighted the role of slower speeds in reducing urban roadkill and traffic injuries.

While parts of kunanyi / Mt Wellington have been cleared in the past (and species like celery top pine were allegedly present), stands of old-growth white gums accompanied by giant stringybarks (such as the Octopus tree) remain there. A rare patch of non-sclerophyll Tasmanian rainforest dominated by myrtle beech and blackheart sassafras is located near Collinsvale. A famous tree within the city of Hobart is the Anglesea Barracks blue gum which may have been a seedling before the colonial era.

Climate

Hobart has a mild temperate oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb). The highest temperature recorded was 41.8 °C (107.2 °F) on 4 January 2013 and the lowest was −2.8 °C (27.0 °F) on 25 June 1972 and 11 July 1981. Annually, Hobart receives only 40.8 clear days without rain. Compared to other major Australian cities, Hobart has the fewest daily average hours of sunshine, with only 5.9 hours per day. However, during the summer it has the same hours of daylight of any Australian city, with 15.3 hours on the summer solstice. By global standards, Hobart has cool summers and mild winters for its latitude, being heavily influenced by its seaside location. Nevertheless, the strong northerly winds from the Australian outback ensure that Hobart experiences temperatures above 35 °C (95 °F) in most years. Those temperatures are very warm compared to climates on higher latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere with similar summer averages. Light air frost occasionally happens, albeit not every year.

Although Hobart itself rarely receives snow during the winter due to the foehn effect created by the Central Highlands (the city's geographic position causes a rain shadow), the adjacent kunanyi / Mount Wellington is frequently seen with a snowcap throughout the year. During the 20th century, the city itself has received snowfalls at sea level on average only once every 5 years; however, outer suburbs lying higher on the slopes of Mount Wellington receive snow more often, owing to the more exposed position coupled with them resting at higher altitude. These snow-bearing winds often carry on through Tasmania and Victoria to the Snowy Mountains in Victoria and southern New South Wales. Nevertheless, sleet can occur in Hobart during the peak Tasmanian snow season (typically defined as being between May to September, with the most snowfalls in July and August).

Average sea temperatures range from 12.5 °C (54.5 °F) in September to 16.5 °C (61.7 °F) in February.

Climate data for Hobart
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average sea temperature °C (°F)	16.9 (62.4)	16.4 (61.5)	16.4 (61.5)	15.4 (59.7)	14.6 (58.3)	13.6 (56.5)	12.9 (55.2)	12.7 (54.9)	12.7 (54.9)	13.1 (55.6)	14.4 (57.9)	15.9 (60.6)	14.6 (58.3)
Mean daily daylight hours	15.0	14.0	12.0	11.0	10.0	9.0	9.0	10.0	12.0	13.0	15.0	15.0	12.1
Average Ultraviolet index	11	9	6	4	2	1	1	2	4	6	8	10	5.3
Source: Weather Atlas, seatemperature.org

Urban structure

Parklands

Hobart has a diverse array of natural areas, parks and gardens. It is most notably defined by its large areas of native bushland owing to its location. The most prominent of these is Wellington Park which encompasses the plateau of kunanyi / Mt Wellington itself as well as much of the surrounding alpine woodland and dense forests. This is taken advantage of with a large number of trails for walking, hiking and mountain biking activities all across the Hobart metropolitan area, some of which follow watercourses like the Hobart Linear Park (Cascade Gardens), Lambert Park, New Town Rivulet (Ancanthe Park) and Tolosa Park, or ridgelines to viewing points in places like the Truganini Conservation Area and Bicentennial Park. The former Fern Tree Bower of Dicksonia antarctica can be visited on the Pipeline Track.

The city also has many urban bushland areas, most prominent of which is the centrally-located Queens Domain which contains the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens established in 1818 (which, though ringed by expressways, remain a highly popular destination with a variety of attractions), the Hobart Cenotaph (accessed via the Bridge of Remembrance and Hobart Regatta grounds which link to the Intercity Cycleway), the University Rose Gardens, a number of sporting facilities (like the Domain Athletic Centre and Doone Kennedy Hobart Aquatic Centre), and formerly the Hobart Zoo (a role now taken up by Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary in Brighton). Areas along the eastern shore also provide recreation, including many coastal walks to areas like Kangaroo Bluff (one of many former Hobart coastal defences which are now parks) and the Kangaroo Bay Parkland (near Charles Hand Park and the Rosny Parklands) in Bellerive, Anzac Park and Simmons Park in Lindisfarne, Wentworth park at Howrah Beach, as well as hills within the urban area such as Gordons Hill, Natone Hill, Rokeby Hills, Waverly Flora Park and the panoramic lookout at Rosny Hill.

In the city, many urban parks and gardens have sprung up over the years, like St David's Park, Franklin Square, the Parliament or Salamanca Gardens, Boat Park (Princes Park), Fitzroy Gardens and St Andrews Park, along with newer pocket parks like the Garden of Memories on Elizabeth Street. Inner suburban parks like Wellesley Park in South Hobart, the Train Park (Caldew Park) in West Hobart, and the Cultural Skatepark and Soundy Park in North Hobart are also popular. Parks continue to extend along the complex coastline of the estuary, from the birdwatching area of Goulds Lagoon, Old Beach's "little doors", the Claremont Cenotaph by Windermere Beach, Moorilla Estate winery, Glenorchy Art and Sculpture Park (GASP) with the Montrose Boardwalk, Giblins Reserve and Cornelian Bay to the north, and the Battery Point Sculpture Trail, Errol Flynn Reserve, Long Beach Reserve by Nutgrove Beach and the Alexandra Battery, and Kingston Park to the south.

Architecture

Hobart's architecture is generally very eclectic and reflective of styles from various eras of Australia's history. It is known for its well-preserved Georgian and Victorian-era lots on a colonial grid giving the city a distinctly "old world" feel. For locals, this became a source of discomfiture about the city's convict past, but is now a draw card for tourists.

Regions within the city centre contain many of the city's oldest heritage-listed buildings, with the Hope and Anchor Tavern (1807) and Ingle Hall (1811–14) among them. Much of the inner-city, such as Battery Point, is dotted with weatherboard cottages and multistorey houses and terraces. Historic villas and mansions, such as Maylands (1884) also exist in the suburbs. Hobart has a significant body of locally notable buildings, including the Cascade Brewery (1824), the Cascades Female Factory (1828), one of the UNESCO Australian Convict Sites, Hadley's Orient Hotel (1834), which is the oldest continuously operating hotel in Australia, the Theatre Royal (1837), the oldest continually operating theatre in Australia, the Greek revival Lady Franklin Gallery (1843), Australia's first private museum, and the Hobart Synagogue (1845), which is the oldest synagogue in Australia and a rare surviving example of an Egyptian revival synagogue. Kelly's Steps were built in 1839 to provide a short-cut from Battery Point to the warehouse and dockyards district of Salamanca Place.

The TMAG building, built in 1902 as a new Second Empire style Customs House, is situated on Constitution Dock and features the old Bond (1824) and Commisariat Store buildings (1810), the latter of which contributed to Hobart's early street layout when the Hobart Rivulet passed beside it. Away from the mouth of the rivulet was Hunter Island and after 1820 was also used for significant warehousing (which would later become Henry Jones IXL who employed an early use of reinforced concrete in 1911). Hunter Street now houses contemporary uses such as a glass atrium events space, the UTAS centre for the arts and the MACq 01 hotel.

Government architect John Lee Archer designed an earlier Regency-style Customs House (1840), facing Sullivans Cove. It was reused as Tasmania's Parliament House, and is now commemorated by a pub bearing the same name (built in 1844) which is frequented by yachtsmen after they complete the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. He also designed the Gothic revival Engineers Building (1847) later used as the Tasmanian Main Line Company headquarters. Nearby are more buildings in the same style, Australia's oldest tertiary institution was based in the former Hobart High School from 1848 (Domain House, now owned by UTAS), and the Government House building was built in 1857 and is the third iteration. Henry Hunter was an architect known for churches such as St Mary's Cathedral (1898), but he also designed Hobart Town Hall (1866) inspired by the Palazzo Farnese on the site of the old Government House.

Hobart is home to many historic churches. The Scots Church (formerly known as St Andrew's) was built in Bathurst Street from 1834 to 1836, and a small sandstone building within the churchyard was used as the city's first Presbyterian Church. The Salamanca warehouses and the Theatre Royal were also constructed in this period. St John's in New Town, featuring a clocktower and turrets, sat in the middle of the Queens Orphanage complex (now near the Hobart City High School) from 1835. The Greek revival St George's Anglican Church in Battery Point was completed in 1838, and a classical tower designed by James Blackburn (who also designed the Holy Trinity Church) was added in 1847. St Joseph's was built in 1840 and the Davey Street Congregational Church in 1857. St David's Cathedral, Hobart's first, was consecrated in 1874. The grand Queen Anne style Mount Saint Canice (1893) sits above Sandy Bay.

By architectural competition, the Edwardian Baroque GPO was built in 1905, and the Hobart City Hall was built in 1915 in a Federation warehouse style on the former city marketplace. Similarly in redbrick, Victoria House is a tall Gothic warehouse from 1910. The North Hobart Post Office (1913) of a John Smith Murdoch design is in a colourful Edwardian style. Art Deco would become a well-known style used on such CBD landmarks as the T&G building (1938) on Murray Street, the Old Mercury Building façade on Macquarie Street (1938), the former Hydro Tasmania (1938) and Colonial Mutual Life buildings (1936) on Elizabeth Street, and the Telegraph Hotel on the waterfront. The 1939 Streamline Moderne Riviera Hotel is joined by what remains the tallest building in Tasmania, the Wrest Point Casino (1973) designed by Roy Grounds in Moderne. Among the tallest buildings in Hobart were built in this era, such as the International Style MLC building (1958–77), the Empress Towers (1967), the Brutalist NAB House (1968) and former Reserve Bank building (1977), the brown-coloured Modernist Marine Board building (1972) and Jaffa building (1978), and the Brutalist State Offices (1969) which were demolished in 2018 for the Parliament Square precinct (which the adaptive reuse Tasman Hotel and Salamanca Building by FJMT is a part of). Dorney House (1978) on the former Fort Nelson is an example of residential modernism bought by the City of Hobart for public use in 2006. Edith Emery was another architect active during this time.

The Hotel Grand Chancellor was built in 1987 in what was the Wapping neighbourhood (demolished in the 1960s as urban renewal for the Railway Roundabout and its Googie fountain) now features many new bulidings in the precinct, such as the industry-inspired 2001 Federation Concert Hall and The Hedberg designed in 2013 around Conceptualism. The distinctive shapes of the 2020 K-Block redevelopment of the Royal Hobart Hospital was based on the street grid and Rajah Quilt. Nearby is the Menzies Institute and UTAS Medical Science Precinct, which features two 2009 examples of avant-garde styles inspired by land-water interplay. On Castray Esplanade, the Salamanca Wharf Hotel was built in 2013 on a carpark combining Antarctic colours with the surrounding former-ordnance warehouses. The Myer Centre Icon Complex was completed in 2020 as a replacement for the 1908 Liverpool Street building which burnt down in 2007, while retaining the façade on Murray. Projects designed by local architects include a Vibe Hotel by Xsquared in 2020 and a Mövenpick Hotel built in 2021 by Jaws (on a site once briefly occupied by the Art Nouveau Palace Theatre) which similarly features vertical panels on glass.

Contemporary architecture has moved towards a more sustainable focus, meaning new public and private developments are encouraged by planning to pursue energy efficiency standards such as NABERS.

Housing

Hobart as a city has delivered its housing by various means and forms. For its early history, housing was small-scale but clustered in very small areas (the highest concentration and diversity of Hobart's heritage remains around the constantly-evolving city centre). With the development of streets and public transport, such as a railway in 1876 and Australia's first fully-electric tram network in 1893, further growth of the urban area was enabled. Inner suburbs from this era typically have orderly streets (around planned subdivisions of former agriculture grants, often inspired by the City Beautiful movement) with shopfronts (the Hill Street Grocer franchise derives from the commercial legacy of a former tramway) and narrow lanes lined with timber and brick cottages, townhouses and small apartment buildings.

Social housing was usually organised by private societies and entities as outreach to those in need until crises brought greater attention from government authorities, such as the Homes Act (1919) and Housing Agreement (1945). The Housing Department focused mainly on mixing these with broad-acre suburban estates, which were sometimes expensive to service with adequate infrastructure. Architects such as Margaret Findlay were employed by the public works department. Bungalows were mass-produced in weatherboard and then fibro materials. The 1944 Town and Country Planning Act was the instrument to transfer control of urban housing to municipalities, which automatically resulted in tightly restricted homebuilding in existing urban areas. The advent of the automotive city and the 1965 Hobart Area Transportation Study (which ultimately resulted in cuts to public transport and parts of the inner city being converted into parking) further made Hobart a sprawling city. Zoning now applies and specific area plans can also be prepared (with the land use near Hobart's northern suburbs transit corridor under particular focus), though planning reform and new provisions schedules are being prepared. While community and social housing projects do occur in expensive areas (such as 25 apartments on Goulburn Street in 2021), it is still difficult to achieve approval.

As of 2024, Hobart is the least dense Australian capital with the highest costs per capita (alongside Sydney) for housing and car-ownership (19.7% cost-to-income in 2024). This is credited with contributing to the broader Tasmanian demographic crisis and emigration. The median house price of inner Hobart was A$1,026,500 in 2021, which would be 12.8x the region's median household income per year. Of the 76,686 total dwellings in urban Greater Hobart in 2021, only 10% were a flat or apartment and 7.2% semi-detached or terrace. Greater Hobart builds on average 700 new dwellings per year, which equates to between 3–3.5 per 1000 people (lower than the 6–9 of other states), mostly concentrated in outer suburbs like Bridgewater (which has the lowest life expectancy in Hobart at 67) which studies show can cost 8x more than infill, meaning they require more infrastructure per dwelling to service than areas closer to existing services (which are more often under-capacity). Rental vacancies have generally been on decline since about 2013 with the rate consistenly under 3% and listings 50.5% lower in southern Tasmania over 11 years. Renting is also typically less protected than other states.

Tenant-oriented housing models may become more common, with a few examples in Hobart such as 2020's all-electric The Commons Hobart where expensive parking mandates were waivered to enable an affordable green lifestyle.

Culture

Hobart shares its culture with other Australian cities, but has gained a reputation as a "cool" and creative cultural capital with increased tourism and interest for its unconventional or quirky events and art projects (many spurred by the "MONA effect").

The city's nightlife primarily revolves around Salamanca Place, the waterfront area, Elizabeth St in North Hobart and Sandy Bay, but popular pubs, bars and nightclubs exist around the city as well. Major national and international music events are usually held at the Derwent Entertainment Centre, or the Casino. Popular restaurant strips include Elizabeth Street in North Hobart, and Salamanca Place near the waterfront. These include numerous ethnic restaurants including Chinese, Thai, Greek, Pakistani, Italian, Indian and Mexican. The major shopping street in the CBD is Elizabeth Street, with the pedestrianised Elizabeth Mall and the General Post Office.

Arts and entertainment

The Hobart City Centre has several theatres in continuous operation, comprising live theatre venues, picture theatres, and a single multiplex operated by Village Cinemas.

The Theatre Royal, established in 1837, is Australia's oldest continually operating theatre, designed by colonial architect John Lee Archer. Hobart's theatre scene encompasses additional venues such as the Playhouse Theatre. Built around 1864, the Playhouse Theatre was originally a chapel designed by Henry Bastow. Today, it is owned by the Hobart Repertory Theatre Society.

The State Cinema in North Hobart is Tasmania's largest arthouse cinema. The grand re-opening of the State Cinema was attended by Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam after it was purchased by the government-funded Australian Film Institute in 1976. The State Cinema was acquired by the US-owned Reading Cinemas chain in November 2019. Located in New Town, the Rewind Cinema, formerly The Hidden Theatre, adds to the city's cultural offerings, housed in a structure built in the 19th century by convicts under instruction from George Arthur.

Another popular arts location is the In the Hanging Garden precinct (used by DarkLab for Dark Mofo), which contains the Odeon Theatre, a live music venue called Altar, and hosts the Hobart Festival of Comedy in March.

Galleries and artworks

Hobart is home to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. The Meadowbank Estate winery and restaurant features a floor mural by Tom Samek, part funded by the Federal Government. The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) opened in 2011 to coincide with the third annual MONA FOMA festival. The multi-storey MONA gallery was built directly underneath the historic Sir Roy Grounds courtyard house, overlooking the River Derwent. This building serves as the entrance to the MONA Gallery. The Lady Franklin Gallery became Australia's first privately funded museum when established by Lady Jane Franklin in 1843. The Art Society of Tasmania has operated from the premises since 1949. Maritime Museum Tasmania is on Hobart's historic waterfront, and explores the influence of the sea on the lives of Tasmanians and the strong maritime heritage of the island.

Hobart has a growing street art scene thanks to a program called Hobart Walls, which was launched in association with the Vibrance Festival, an annual mural-painting event. The City of Hobart and Vibrance Festival launched Hobart's first legal street art wall in Bidencopes Lane in 2018, allowing any artist to paint there, on any day of the week, provided they sign up for a permit and paint between 9 am and 10 pm.

Literature

Australia's first novel, Quintus Servinton, was published in 1831 by convict Henry Savery and published in Hobart, where he wrote the work during his imprisonment. A generally autobiographical work, it is the story of what happens to a well-educated man from a relatively well-to-do family, who makes poor choices in life.

Mary Leman Grimstone, whose book Woman's Love was written in Hobart between 1826 and 1829, holds the distinction of being the author of the first non-biographical Australian novel. It was printed in London in 1832.

Music

The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra is based at the Federation Concert Hall on the city's waterfront. The Federation Concert Hall also hosts the University of Tasmania's Australian International Symphony Orchestra Institute (AISOI) which fosters advanced young musicians from across Australia and internationally.

The city has long been home to a thriving classical, jazz, folk, punk, hip-hop, electro, metal, and rock music scene. Internationally recognised musicians such as metal acts Striborg and Psycroptic, indie-electro bands The Paradise Motel and The Scientists of Modern Music, singer-songwriters Sacha Lucashenko (of The Morning After Girls), Michael Noga (of The Drones), and Monique Brumby, two-thirds of indie rock band Love of Diagrams, post punk band Sea Scouts, theremin player Miles Brown, blues guitarist Phil Manning (of blues-rock band Chain), power-pop group The Innocents, and TikTok artist Kim Dracula all originated in Hobart. Close Shave, one of Australia's longest serving male a cappella quartets, is based in Hobart. In addition, founding member of Violent Femmes, Brian Ritchie, now calls Hobart home, and has formed a local band, The Green Mist. Ritchie also curates the annual international arts festival MONA FOMA, held at Salamanca Place's waterfront venue, Princes Wharf, Shed No. 1.

Events

Hobart's recurring events consist of weekly markets, such as the famous Salamanca Market, the Farm Gate Market, and Twilight Market, but the city also hosts many significant festivals including summer's Taste of Tasmania which celebrates local produce, wine and music, Dark Mofo which is the biggest winter festival leading into the solstice featuring the Winter Feast and Ogoh-ogoh, Australia's premier festival celebration of voice the Festival of Voices, and Tasmania's biennial international arts festival Ten Days On The Island. Other festivals, including the Hobart Fringe Festival, Southern Roots Festival, the Falls Festival in Marion Bay, the Clarence Jazz Festival, the Breath of Fresh Air film festival (BOFA) and the Soundscape Festival also capitalise on Hobart's artistic communities.

Hobart is internationally famous among the yachting community as the finish of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race which starts in Sydney on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas Day). The arrival of the yachts is celebrated as part of the Hobart Summer Festival, a food and wine festival beginning just after Christmas and ending in mid-January. The Taste of Tasmania is a major part of the festival held around Elizabeth Street Pier and the PW1 convention centre, where locals and visitors can taste fine local and international food and wine. Later is the TasPride Festival which features a parade. Leading up to Christmas in November is the Myer Christmas Pageant which has been held since 1982.

The Australian Wooden Boat Festival is a biennial event held in Hobart celebrating wooden boats. It is held concurrently with the Royal Hobart Regatta, which began in 1830 and is therefore Tasmania's oldest surviving sporting event. The Sandy Bay Regatta began in 1849. Further up the Domain, the annual Tulip Festival at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens is a popular Spring celebration in the city. In October is Hobart Show Day where agriculture is showcased at the Hobart Showground in Glenorchy. With a focus on science and education, during August is the Beaker Street Festival (since 2016) and the city celebrates its status as a gateway city with the biennial Australian Antarctic Festival.

The Think Big Run the Bridge fun run has been held since 2009. Also in march, the kunanyi Mountain Run features a culture festival in South Hobart which encourages connection with the mountain's ecosystem, Country and Palawa culture, including smoking ceremonies. Reconciliation Tasmania also holds events for NAIDOC and Reconciliation Weeks. The Hobart International is an annual tennis tournament held since 1994. An Ironman 70.3 is held in Hobart in February (since 2023) with the courses centred around the harbour. The city is the finishing point of the Targa Tasmania rally car event, which has been held annually in April since 1991.

Reflecting Hobart's growing diversity of communities, a Tasmanian Multicultural Festival is held after the Sandy Bay Regatta along with the Together Festival for Harmony Week. The Story Festival also explores cultures over 9 days in Clarence City (since 2021). A broad itinerary of events of cultural significance are held across the region by associations representing diasporas within Hobart. Events include: Thai-Pongal (by the Tamil Association of Tasmania), the Sinhalese New Year, the Festival of Lights Diwali by Deepavali Tasmania, numerous events by the Nepali Society of Tasmania such as the Holi Colour Festival, Tihar, the Nepalese New Year and a Nepal Fair, from the Chinese Community Association of Tasmania including the Chinese Lunar New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival and Dragon Boat Festival, the Tasmania Chinese Lantern Festival (by the Australian Fujian Association Tasmania), a Malay Cultural Festival (by the Tasmanian Malay Cultural Society), numerous events by the Australia-Japan Society of Tasmania such as sister city relations with Yaizu and Kodomo no hi, and the Festa Italia by the Australian Italian Club Hobart in North Hobart.

Franklin Square is becoming an increasingly popular event space for people to get together and is the site of Street Eats @ Franko on Fridays from December to April.

Sport

Most professional Hobart-based sports teams represent Tasmania as a whole rather than exclusively the city.

Cricket is a popular game of the city. The Tasmanian Tigers cricket team plays its home games at the Bellerive Oval on the Eastern Shore. A new team, Hobart Hurricanes represent the city in the Big Bash League. Bellerive Oval has been the breeding ground of some world class cricket players including the former Australia captain Ricky Ponting.

On May 3, 2023, Tasmania was awarded a conditional license to become the league's 19th AFL team. It is anticipated that the men's team will be established and join the AFL in 2028. The conditional license is contingent on a 23,000 seat roofed stadium to be built for the team at Macquarie Point in Hobart. Tasmania will be the first expansion side of the AFL since 2010, when the GWS Giants were awarded a license, and joined the competition as an active participant in 2012. On March 18, 2024, it was announced that the new AFL team would be known as the Tasmanian Devils. The colours, mascot and jumper were all unveiled on this date. The club chose the myrtle green, primrose yellow and rose red as its official colours, which constitutes the make up of the jumper design. Local domestic club football is still played. Tasmanian State League football features five clubs from Hobart, and other leagues such as Southern Football League and the Old Scholars Football Association are also played each Winter.

The city has two local rugby league football teams (Hobart Tigers and South Hobart Storm) that compete in the Tasmanian Rugby League.

Tasmania is not represented by teams in the NRL, Super Rugby, ANZ Championship or A-League. However, the Tasmania JackJumpers entered the NBL in the 2021/22 season. The Hobart Chargers also represent Hobart in the second-tier South East Australian Basketball League. Besides the bid for an AFL club which was passed over in favour of a second Queensland team, despite several major local businesses and the Premier pioneering for a club, there is also a Hobart bid for entry into the A-League.

The Tassie Tigers field men's and women's representative sides in the national hockey league, Hockey One (which replaced the Australian Hockey League in 2019). They play their home matches at the Tasmanian Hockey Centre in New Town near Cornelian Bay, which features three synthetic hockey pitches that have also hosted international competition such as the Men's FIH Pro League as recently as 2019. The Kookaburras current co-Captain and games record holder, Eddie Ockenden, is a product of the Hobart-based club North West Graduates.

The city co-hosted the basketball FIBA Oceania Championship 1975, where the Australian national basketball team won the gold medal.

Media

Station	Frequency
Energy FM	87.8 FM	Commercial
Triple J	92.9 FM	Government funded
ABC Classic FM	93.9 FM	Government funded
Hobart FM	96.1 FM	Community
Edge Radio	99.3 FM	Community
hit100.9 Hobart	100.9 FM	Commercial
7HO FM	101.7 FM	Commercial
SBS Radio	105.7 FM	Government funded
Ultra106five	106.5 FM	Christian/narrowcast
Triple M Hobart	107.3 FM	Commercial
ABC Radio National	585 AM	Government funded
ABC NewsRadio	747 AM	Government funded
7RPH	864 AM	Community
936 ABC Hobart	936 AM	Government funded
TOTE Sport Radio	1080 AM	Racing/narrowcast
Rete Italia	1611 AM	Italian radio
NTC Radio Australia	1620 AM	Community

Five free-to-air television stations service Hobart:

• ABC Tasmania (ABT)
• SBS Tasmania (SBS)
• Southern Cross Seven Tasmania (TNT) – Seven Network affiliate
• Nine Tasmania (TVT) – Nine Network affiliate
• Tasmanian Digital Television (TDT) – Network 10 affiliate

Each station broadcasts a primary channel and several multichannels.

Hobart is served by twenty-nine digital free-to-air television channels:

The majority of pay television services are provided by Foxtel via satellite, although other smaller pay television providers do service Hobart.

Commercial radio stations licensed to cover the Hobart market include Triple M Hobart, hit100.9 Hobart and 7HO FM. Local community radio stations include Christian radio station Ultra106five, Edge Radio and Hobart FM which targets the wider community with specialist programmes. The five ABC radio networks available on analogue radio broadcast to Hobart via 936 ABC Hobart, Radio National, Triple J, NewsRadio and ABC Classic FM. Hobart is also home to the video creation company Biteable.

Hobart's major newspaper is The Mercury, which was founded by John Davies in 1854 and has been continually published ever since. The paper is owned and operated by Rupert Murdoch's News Limited. Pulse Tasmania, formerly Pulse Hobart, started as a radio station in Hobart and focuses mainly on short-form news media on its website.

Demographics

At the 2021 census, there were 247,068 people in the Greater Hobart. The City of Hobart local government area had a population of 55,077.

As of 2021, the median weekly household income was $1,542, compared with $1,746 nationally.

18.1% of households total weekly income is less than $650 week, while 18.9% of households weekly income exceeds $3,000. This compares to national rates of 16.5% and 24.3% respectively.

35.4% of renting households, and 10.3% of owned households with a mortgage experience housing stress, where rent or mortgage repayments exceed 30% of income.

At the 2016 census, The most common occupation categories were professionals (22.6%), clerical and administrative workers (14.7%), technicians and trades workers (13.3%), community and personal service workers (12.8%), and managers (11.3%).

Ancestry and immigration

Country of birth (2021)

Birthplace	Population
Australia	189,218
England	8,155
Mainland China	5,544
Nepal	4,107
India	4,074
New Zealand	2,108
Philippines	1,165

4.5% of the population (11,216 people) are Indigenous Australians (Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders).

At the 2021 census, the most commonly nominated ancestry groups include:

23.4% of the population was born overseas at the 2021 census. The five largest groups of overseas-born were from England (3.3%), Mainland China (2.2%), Nepal (1.7%), India (1.6%) and New Zealand (0.9%).

Language

At the 2021 census, 82.6% of the population spoke only English at home. The other languages most commonly spoken at home were Mandarin (2.6%), Nepali (1.8%), Punjabi (0.7%), Cantonese (0.5%) and Vietnamese (0.4%).

Religion

In the 2021 census, 49.9% of Greater Hobart residents specified no religion. Christianity comprised the largest religious affiliation (37.1%), with the largest denominations being Anglicanism (14.1%) and Catholicism (14.1%). Hinduism (2.6%), Buddhism (1.3%), Islam (1.3%) and Sikhism (0.6%) constitute the remaining largest religious affiliations.

Hobart has a small community of 456 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with meetinghouses in Glenorchy, Rosny, and Glen Huon. There is also a synagogue, with a Jewish community of 203 people. Hobart has a Baháʼí community, with a Baháʼí Centre of Learning, located within the city. In 2013, Hillsong Church established a Hillsong Connect campus in Hobart.

Economy

In 2021, Greater Hobart's main occupations were professionals and service workers, trades, administration and management and other labour professions working in industries such as healthcare, the public service, and supermarkets and small businesses. Incomes are higher than the rest of Tasmania, but lower than the Australian median. These employment areas are reflected by the gross value added provided by industries, which is greatest among the "healthcare and social assistance (17%), public administration and safety (11%), and financial and insurance services (10%)." Healthcare is also the fastest-growing, while services and construction have the highest business count. The vast majority of this economic production is concentrated in the City of Hobart area, except manufacturing which is higher in Glenorchy City.

Major shopping areas include the Elizabeth Street Mall (the only fully-pedestrianised block in the city), which is connected with the Cat and Fiddle Arcade, Centrepoint and Liverpool Street in the CBD, Mayfair Shopping Plaza on Sandy Bay Road, New Town Plaza, Moonah Central (near a foodmarket), Northgate Shopping Centre and Centro in Glenorchy, Claremont Plaza, Eastlands Shopping Centre (Tasmania's biggest) in Rosny Park, Lindisfarne village, Shoreline Plaza in Howrah, Glebe Hill Village Shopping Centre, Cambridge Homemaker Centre by the airport, Green Point Plaza and Covehill Fair Shopping Centre in Bridgewater, New Norfolk, and Channel Court Shopping Centre and Kingston Town Shopping Centre in Kingston.

Shipping is significant to the city's economy. Hobart is the home port for the Antarctic activities of Australia and France. The port loads around 2,000 tonnes of Antarctic cargo a year for the Australian research vessel Nuyina (previously the Aurora Australis). The city is also a popular cruise ship destination during the summer months, with 47 such ships docking during the course of the 2016–17 summer season, and $34.5 million in direct expenditure in 2017 (an average spend of $172 per passenger).

Tourism is a significant part of the economy, with visitors coming to the city to explore its historic inner suburbs and nationally acclaimed restaurants and cafes, as well as its vibrant music and nightlife culture. The two major draw-cards are the weekly market in Salamanca Place, and the Museum of Old and New Art. The city is also used as a base from which to explore the rest of Tasmania.

The city also supports many other industries. Major local employers include catamaran builder Incat, zinc refinery Nyrstar Hobart, Cascade Brewery and Cadbury's Chocolate Factory, Norske Skog Boyer and Wrest Point Casino. The city also supports a host of light industry manufacturers, as well as a range of redevelopment projects, including the $689 million Royal Hobart Hospital Redevelopment – standing as the states largest ever Health Infrastructure project.

The last 15–20 years have seen Hobart's wine industry thrive as many vineyards have developed in countryside areas outside of the city in the Coal River Wine Region and D'Entrecasteaux Channel, including Moorilla Estate at Berriedale one of the most awarded vineyards in Australia.

Antarctic gateway

Hobart is an Antarctic gateway city, with geographical proximity to East Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Infrastructure is provided by the port of Hobart for scientific research and cruise ships, and Hobart International Airport supports an Antarctic Airlink to Wilkins Runway at Casey Station. Hobart is a logistics point for the Australian vessel Nuyina and French icebreaker L'Astrolabe.

Hobart is the home port for the Australian and French Antarctic programs, and provides port services for other visiting Antarctic nations and Antarctic cruise ships. Antarctic and Southern Ocean expeditions are supported by a specialist cluster offering cold climate products, services and scientific expertise. The majority of these businesses and organisations are members of the Tasmanian polar network, supported in part by the Tasmanian State Government.

Tasmania has a high concentration of Antarctic and Southern Ocean scientists. Hobart is home to the following Antarctic and Southern Ocean scientific institutions:

• Australian Antarctic Division
• Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR)
• Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP)
• The University of Tasmania (UTAS) – expertise in Antarctic and Southern Ocean science and research
• Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) (established by UTAS)
• Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS)
• Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE-CRC)
• International Antarctic Institute (IAI) (hosted by UTAS)
• Southern Ocean Observing System (hosted by UTAS/ IMAS)
• CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research

Tourism

Hobart serves as a focal point and mecca for tourism in the state of Tasmania. Hobart has been a significant tourist destination for many years, however tourism has evolved to a core industry in the last decade. This process has been termed the "MONA Effect" - referring to the significant influence of the Museum of New and Old Art (MONA), the Southern Hemisphere's largest private museum, on the local tourist economy - compared to the effect of the Guggenheim on Bilbao. Since opening in 2011, MONA had received 2.5 million visitors by 2022 and has helped establish a number of art and food venues and events, including MONA FOMA, and the winter festivals of Mid-Winter Fest and Dark Mofo. 27% of visitors to Tasmania visit the museum.

In 2016, Hobart received 1.8 million visitors, surpassing both Perth and Canberra, tying equally with Brisbane. Visitor numbers reached a low of 744,200 in 2021, primarily as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic, with expectations that numbers would return to normal by 2023.

Many local tourist attractions focuses on the convict history of Hobart, the city's historic architecture, art experiences, and food and alcohol experiences. Hobart is home to a significant number of nationally known restaurants, boutique alcohol producers, including Sullivans Cove Whiskey, which won world's best single malt in 2014, boutique hotels, and art experiences. Other significant tourist attractions include Australia's second oldest botanic gardens, the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, which holds extensive significant plant collections, a range of public and private museums including the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and Maritime Museum Tasmania, and kunanyi / Mount Wellington, one of the dominant features of Hobart's skyline. At 1,271 metres (4,170 ft), the mountain has its own ecosystems, is rich in biodiversity and plays a large part in determining the local weather.

Hobart is used as a staging ground to visit many of the region's surrounding attractions, including the historic sights of Richmond (where a model of Old Hobart Town is located) and Oatlands, Seven Mile Beach and Turrakana / Tasman Peninsula, the Huon Valley, and the waterfalls of Mount Field National Park via the Derwent Valley.

Infrastructure

Education

The Greater Hobart area contains 122 primary, secondary and pretertiary (College) schools distributed throughout Clarence, Glenorchy and Hobart City Councils and Kingborough and Brighton Municipalities. These schools are made up of a mix of public, catholic, private and independent run, with the heaviest distribution lying in the more densely populated West around the Hobart city core. The Department for Education, Children and Young People is responsible for government schools and Libraries Tasmania, which operates literacy services and libraries across the region, including the State Library of Tasmania where it is headquartered.

Hobart is home to the main campus of the University of Tasmania, a sandstone university located in Sandy Bay. On-site accommodation colleges include Christ College (founded in 1846, making it Australia's oldest tertiary institution), Jane Franklin Hall and St John Fisher College. UTAS also has many sites within the Hobart City Centre, where it hosts the Medical Science Precinct, the College of Arts, Law and Education's Hunter Street campus (which also has a TasTAFE training facility), and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) nearby the CSIRO Marine Laboratories, as well as the Hytten Hall and Hobart Apartments accommodation in Midtown. It also operates the Canopus Hill Observatory in Mount Rumney and the Mount Pleasant Radio Observatory in Cambridge.

TasTAFE operates a total of seven polytechnic campuses within the Greater Hobart area that provide vocational education and training. These include the Campbell Street campus in the city, the Clarence campus in Warrane, and Drysdale (at Claremont College and on Collins Street).

Transport

Bus

The main public transportation within the city of Hobart is via a network of Metro Tasmania buses operated by the Tasmanian Government. The main hub is at the centrally located Hobart City Interchange on Elizabeth Street. The GreenCard fare ticketing system is held by about 100 thousand customers.

There are also a small number of private bus services, departing from Murray Street and the Brooke Street Pier. These include the aiport SkyBus, and charters and coaches by Tassielink Transit and Redline Coaches (now KINETIC, including the O'Driscoll Coaches Derwent Valley Link).

Tasmania spends the least per capita on public transport in Australia, which is partly responsible for a weekday usage decline of 80.8% between 1964 and 2021. However, the State Government has indicated a consolidation of routes into three main BRT spokes.

Road

Hobart's transport is centred around roads. The main arterial routes within the urban area are the Brooker Highway to Glenorchy and the northern suburbs, the Tasman Bridge and Bowen Bridge across the river to Rosny and the Eastern Shore. The East Derwent Highway to Lindisfarne, Geilston Bay, and Northwards to Brighton, the South Arm Highway leading to Howrah, Rokeby, Lauderdale and Opossum Bay and the Southern Outlet south to Kingston and the D'Entrecasteaux Channel. Leaving the city, motorists can travel the Lyell Highway to the west coast, Midland Highway to Launceston and the north, Tasman Highway to the east coast, or the Huon Highway to the far south.

Many of these highways were built after Australia's first motor vehicle transportation study by US consultants in the 1960s, with an apparent urgency to cater to growing road traffic volumes. However, most of the targets were not achieved in the years after 1985 despite the scale of these projects, with the large amount of public funds required curbing feasibility. Another side-effect of this transition in investment away from public transport is that Hobart has limited mode redundancy compared to larger Australian capitals and a higher proportion of vehicle traffic, meaning that individual incidents can shut the entire network down.

As part of the Southern Transport Investment Program, Tasmania's largest transport project, the $786 million (as of 2023) New Bridgewater Bridge, is expected to finish by 2025. Unlike the Tasman Bridge, it will be accessible to pedestrians upon opening.

Ferry

There is a ferry service by Derwent Ferries which operates a single line (F2) between Brooke Street Pier and Bellerive Quay that operates six days a week. It was initiated as a trial in 2021 servicing the Hobart City Centre and Bellerive on the eastern shore, garnering 110 thousand passengers by the end of the year. The ferry provides a convenient alternative to crossing the Tasman Bridge choke point, with its purpose being to reduce congestion. It is seen as a first step in diversifying Hobart's transport options to reduce traffic problems by taking the number of cars off the road rather than inducing more traffic. More ferry terminal sites were revealed in 2023 to Regatta Point, Wrest Point, Wilkinsons Point, Howrah Point, Lindisfarne and Kingston Beach.

There are also private tourist ferries like the Spirit of Hobart, and two MONA Roma catamarans which take 25 minutes to the Museum of Old and New Art.

Ferry services from Hobart's Eastern Shore into the city were once a common form of public transportation, but with lack of government funding, as well as a lack of interest from the private sector, the commuter ferry service was closed for many decades – leaving Hobart's commuters relying solely on travel by automobiles and buses. There was however a water taxi service operating from the Eastern Shore into Hobart which provides an alternative to the Tasman Bridge (ferries were temporarily loaned from Sydney following the Tasman Bridge disaster). The MV Cartela was one of Australia's oldest still operating since 1912.

Air

Hobart is served by Hobart International Airport with flights to/from Adelaide, Auckland, Brisbane, Canberra, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, and regional destinations including the Bass Strait islands. The smaller Cambridge Aerodrome mainly serves small charter airlines offering local tourist flights. In the past decade, Hobart International Airport received a huge upgrade, with the airport now being a first class airport facility.

In 2009, it was announced that Hobart Airport would receive more upgrades, including a first floor, aerobridges (currently, passengers must walk on the tarmac) and shopping facilities. Possible new international flights to Asia and New Zealand, and possible new domestic flights to Darwin and Cairns have been proposed. A second runway, possibly to be constructed in the next 15 years, would assist with growing passenger numbers to Hobart. Hobart Control Tower may be renovated and fitted with new radar equipment, and the airport's carpark may be extended further. Also, new facilities will be built just outside the airport. A new service station, hotel and day care centre have already been built and the road leading to the airport has been maintained and re-sealed. In 2016, work began on a 500-metre extension of the existing runway in addition to a $100 million upgrade of the airport. The runway extension is expected to allow international flights to land and increase air-traffic with Antarctica. This upgrade was, in part, funded under a promise made during the 2013 federal election by the Abbott government.

Seaport

Hobart's main port is managed by TasPorts and has a variety of uses. In Sullivans Cove, the two Princes Wharves are used for Antarctic restocking operations, while there are many piers and pontoons for berthing sailing boats, fishing vessels and yachts (at Victoria and Constitution Docks, especially following the Sydney to Hobart) and a seaplane. At Macquarie Point, the six Macquarie wharves are used for cruise ships (with a terminal onto Hunter Street by the port tower building) and defence vessels. Previously, shipping and services to ferry people between Sydney and Hobart such as Tasmanian Steamers and the Australian National Line, and shipbuilding occurred nearby.

Rail

While freight rail no longer operates within Hobart (since 2014), TasRail still operates the Brighton Transport Hub which connects to the main line to the north of Tasmania. Locomotives can be seen in Bridgewater as they make their way from the Boyer Mill near New Norfolk on the operational part of the Derwent Valley railway.

Like many large Australian cities, Hobart once operated high-quality passenger rail services. This included a tram network which was closed in the early 1960s. The tracks are still visible in the older streets of Hobart. It was replaced by a short-lived trolleybus network consisting of six routes which operated until 1968. Suburban passenger trains, run by the Tasmanian Government Railways, were closed in 1974 and the intrastate passenger service, the Tasman Limited, ceased running in 1978. The Tasmanian Transport Museum in Glenorchy has a restored section of track for visitors.

There has been a push from public transport advocates and the two local councils to establish a light rail network, intended to be fast, efficient, and eco-friendly, along existing tracks on the Northern Suburbs Transit Corridor to solve the frequent jamming of traffic in Hobart CBD. This has grown amidst the need for higher-capacity mass transit and an alternative State Government bus proposal. The earlier Riverline proposal, which reached a business case (at $100 million, demonstrating benefits for socioeconomically disadvantaged areas of the city), was scrapped in the 2014 Australian federal budget.

Utilities

Drinking water and sewerage in the city is managed by TasWater, but many organisations and levels of government are involved at different stages. The first dams in Tasmania were built along the Hobart Rivulet and now there are many reservoirs in the region to safeguard the supply of water (as while kunanyi / Mt Wellington receives high rainfall, the city itself is dry), such as the Waterworks reservoirs via the Sandy Bay Rivulet, the Tolosa dam (disused in 2018) and Lime Kiln Gully dam in Glenorchy, and the Flagstaff Gully dam and Risdon Brook dam (which stores treated water from the New Norfolk Bryn Estyn plant) in Clarence.

TasNetworks is responsible for electricity and telecommunications provision.

Notable residents

Sister cities

• Yaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan (1977)
• L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy (1980)
• Valdivia, Los Ríos, Chile (1998)
• Xi'an, Shaanxi, China (2015)
• Fuzhou, Fujian, China (2017)
• Barile, Basilicata, Italy (2009)

See also

In Spanish: Hobart para niños