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Parks and nature reserves , located within
Queens Domain 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
Mount 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 stylistically eclectic and reflects various periods of Australian history. The city is known for its well-preserved
Georgian and
Victorian-era buildings, giving specific areas an "
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. , one of eleven UNESCO
World Heritage-listed
Australian Convict Sites The city centre contains many of the city's oldest buildings, including the
Hope and Anchor Tavern (1807) and
Ingle Hall (1811–14). The
Cascade Brewery (1824), Australia's longest operating brewery, was built using convict labour, as was the
Cascades Female Factory (1828), now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Other notable early buildings include:
Hadley's Orient Hotel (1834), Australia's oldest continuously operating hotel; the
Theatre Royal (1837), Australia's oldest continually operating theatre; the
Greek revival Lady Franklin Gallery (1843), Australia's first private museum; and the
Hobart Synagogue (1845), which is Australia's
oldest synagogue and a rare example of an
Egyptian revival synagogue.
Salamanca Place contains many Georgian era buildings, as well as
Kelly's Steps, which were built in 1839 to provide a short-cut to
Battery Point, a largely residential suburb known for its weatherboard cottages and multi-storey terraces. Government architect
John Lee Archer designed the
Regency-style
Customs House (1840), facing
Sullivans Cove and now used as Parliament House. 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), located on the site of the old Government House. The
TMAG building, built in 1902 as a new
Second Empire style Customs House, is situated on
Constitution Dock and incorporates the 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 extensive warehousing. 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.
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. 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. The
North Hobart Post Office (1913) of a
John Smith Murdoch design is in a colourful
Edwardian style. Hobart is also home to a number of
Art Deco landmarks, including the
T&G building (1938) on
Murray Street, the Old
Mercury Building on
Macquarie Street (1938), the former
Hydro Tasmania (1938) and the
Colonial Mutual Life buildings (1936) on
Elizabeth Street. 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. Several of 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), and the brown-coloured
Modernist Marine Board Building (1972) and Jaffa Building (1978).
Dorney House (1978) at the former
Fort Nelson is an example of residential modernism. The postmodern
Hotel Grand Chancellor was built in 1987 in what was the Wapping neighbourhood, which now features many examples of
contemporary architecture, such as the 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 convict-made
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 and combines 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 Street. Projects designed by local architects include the
Mövenpick Hotel, built in 2021 by Jaws.
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 consistently 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==