People & Places
Patricia's Tasmania
Patricia Curmi recalls her visit to Tasmania's capital, Hobart, and tells us why the 'secret city' is a real discovery for those who head there
Poet laureate Andrew Motion called it "the apex of heaven," the late movie star Errol Flynn is its most famous native son, and it is Australia's second oldest European colony after Sydney.
But then, even if you don't like poetry, Errol Flynn or history lessons, Hobart may still have a few surprises for those who venture across the Bass Strait from the mainland and into the rolling landscape of Tasmania.
It's hard to imagine another city, let alone a capital city, with the same gentle appeal of Hobart. The place is packed with amusing oddities and curious titbits that relate to some local legend or current character, not signposted or explained, and the fun is all in stumbling upon some statue marked 'Dead man's gold' and wrangling the story from some native Hobartian.
A jigsaw of aesthetic influences and local eccentricity leave Hobart with a topsy-turvy familiarity; the European feel of the architecture has been inverted, played with and has evolved into something uniquely Tasmanian.
This is also true of Hobartians, and few visitors have left the city without experiencing the unbounded warmth of the straight-speaking locals.
Maybe the fact that this seaport city lays at the foot of the imposing Mount Wellington and on the banks of the lolling flow of the river Derwent prevents the usual urban neuroses actually taking hold there. Ask a local about the last time they felt road rage, or obsessed about their career or status and you'll be told it's "as rare as hen's teeth."
There are comparatively few Brits in Hobart, or indeed anywhere in Tasmania, but Jill Scott, who moved there thirty three years ago from the state of Victoria, was clear why she decided to make Hobart her home. "My kids never grew up wanting the latest this or that, they played up trees or on the beach. In most other places children just sit about watching TV. "It's so clean as well, you can drink the water straight from streams. In most cities they pay for it bottled!" she laughs.
The city of Hobart has a population of around 50,000 and while you might struggle to use terms like 'multicultural' and 'cosmopolitan' to describe it, there is a genuine 'bohemian' undercurrent in the city that permeates the numerous cafés and public squares that populate the cobbled streets.
Each Saturday the population swells as tourists, locals and other Tasmanians come into Hobart to stroll around the famous Salamanca market. It's best to go quite early to watch the sunrise over the harbour as the stall-holders, a mixed bag of jovial old-timers, new age healers and chatty locals, set up their wares.
The festivals and outdoor events mostly fall in the summer months, but there are art exhibitions and theatre productions all year round.
Tasmanian artists must be a particularly thick skinned bunch, however, as the locals are neither shy nor half-hearted in their critiques as I found out in an especially cringe-worthy production in an open air show.
Walking through the city, sitting on a bench in the grassy squares, eating the fresh seafood and local produce in the restaurants, your mind boggles as to why more Brits haven't heard about Hobart. It's only when you walk along one of the many unspoilt, unpopulated beaches in Hobart watching crisp turquoise waves nibbling at the sand, you realise why the city is probably best left off the rampant tourist trails and property developer's drawing board. Who would want to share this heaven with anyone else?
Article first published in Emigrate Australia - the predecessor to Emigrate.
Picture courtesy of Tourism Australia
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