Hobart
Hobart 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 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. Prior to British colonisation, the land had been occupied for possibly as long as 35,000 years by Aboriginal Tasmanians, who generally refer to themselves as Palawa or Pakana.
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. Well-known drawcards include its convict-era architecture, Salamanca Market and the Museum of Old and New Art, 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 at Sullivans Cove. 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. 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 when he was told by Woureddy, 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.
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, which winds its way down from the centre of the island through the lands of the Big River people. On the eastern shore, the name for the Clarence Plains was known as naniyilipata by the Mumirimina, a group of the Oyster Bay people. Droughty Point was known as trumanyapayna as it was a hunting ground, and South Arm as mutatayna. Later names by the TAC include piyura kitina at Risdon Cove and turikina truwala 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 and Montpelliatta 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.
File:John Glover - Mount Wellington and Hobart Town from Kangaroo Point - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|John Glover's 1834 painting Mount Wellington and Hobart Town from Kangaroo Point depicts Aboriginal Tasmanians dancing in the foreground. By this stage however, Aboriginal people had been forcibly exiled from the area following the Black War.
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 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 bounded by peaks averaging around . 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 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.
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.
File:Hobart Wide Pano.jpg|thumb|center|700x700px|Panorama of the Hobart metropolitan area from Mount Stuart. In the background is Mount Direction with the Jordan River valley to the left and Shag Bay to the right