Hobart Travel Guide

Salamanca Place is a row of 1830s sandstone warehouses in Hobart, now a colonnade of galleries, cafés and boutiques. Every Saturday the Salamanca Market gathers crafts, produce and buskers — the richest expression of Tasmania's slow life and artistic spirit. After dark the warehouses glow with warm light; corner live music and harbour lamps give the sandstone colonnade its warmth.

Mount Wellington rises about 1,271 m west of Hobart — Tasmania's most recognisable landmark. Windy and often snow-capped, its summit overlooks the city and the Derwent estuary; between sea of clouds and clear sky, it is a grand lookout between the Tasmanian coast and the Antarctic route. Trails thread rainforest and boulders, and the Springs station midway frames Hobart in full.

The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), founded by David Walsh in 2011 near Hobart, is a subterranean museum carved into a cliff, famed for provocative, bold contemporary art. A ferry up the Derwent leads to dark, concrete galleries — Australia's most uninhibited art experience. Known for installations like 'The O' and a labyrinthine lower gallery, its bars extend Walsh's rebellious spirit.

Cascade Brewery sits in the Cascade Valley just south of Hobart, at the foot of kunanyi / Mount Wellington. Established in 1824, it is the oldest continually operating brewery in Australia. The Dutch-style red-brick buildings, with their castle-like tower and stone walls, were sited to take advantage of the clear mountain water channelled down from the slopes. Visits explain the malting, mashing, fermentation and packaging process, and you can taste the beer in the historic bar and courtyard. The Cascade Falls track and the old Female Factory site next door make an easy walking addition to a half-day trip from the city.

In the South Hobart suburb south of Hobart's city centre, the Cascades Female Factory was one of four female convict workhouses in Tasmania, running from 1828 to 1856 where women transported to Van Diemen's Land were imprisoned and put to labour. It is one of the 11 sites that make up the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Australian Convict Sites, and its ruins of cells, workshops and yards remain today. The site offers the highly regarded Convict Women's Tour (multiple daily departures, about 45 minutes) plus a self-guided audio experience telling the story of forced labour, motherhood and survival.

Tucked off Argyle Street just a block from Constitution Dock in Hobart's centre, the Maritime Museum of Tasmania is the authority on the island state's seafaring history. Its permanent Carnegie Gallery traces Tasmanian maritime history from first European contact to working watercraft, spanning sailing ships, steamships and Bass Strait shipwrecks. The museum includes a maritime bookshop and gift shop and hosts rotating special exhibitions (such as the story of the lost ship 'Blythe Star', showing until mid-2026).