Hobart Sights

  1. Battery Point

    An empty rum bottle's throw from the once notorious Sullivans Cove waterfront, the old maritime village of Battery Point is a nest of tiny lanes and 19th-century cottages, packed together like shanghaied landlubbers in a ship's belly. Its name derives from the 1818 gun battery that stood on the promontory, protecting Hobart Town from nautical threats both real and imagined.

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  2. Female Factory

    Finally being recognised as an important historic site (one in four convicts transported to Van Diemen's Land was a woman!), the Female Factory was where Hobart's female convicts were incarcerated. Tour bookings are essential.

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  3. Franklin Wharf

    Hobart's busy waterfront area, centred on Franklin Wharf, is a great place for a stroll. At Constitution Dock are several floating takeaway seafood stalls - it's an obligatory holiday activity to sit in the sun munching fresh fish and chips while watching the busy harbour (the docks also have some fine restaurants if you prefer something more formal).

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  4. Moorilla Estate

    Moorilla Estate occupies a saucepan-shaped peninsula jutting into the Derwent River. Founded in the 1950s, Moorilla plays a prominent and gregarious role in Hobart society. Stop by for wine and beer tastings ( ooooh, the pinot noir…), have lunch or dinner at the outstanding restaurant The Source, catch a summer concert on the lawns (Grinspoon, Cat Empire, The Pretenders et al) or splash some cash for a night in the über-swish accommodation.

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  5. Parliament House

    Presiding over an oak-studded park adjacent to Salamanca Place is the low-lying, sandstone Parliament House, completed in 1840 and originally used as a customs house. Tours don't run when parliament is in session.

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  7. Penitentiary Chapel Historic Site

    Ruminating over the court rooms, cells and gallows of the Penitentiary Chapel Historic Site writer TG Ford mused: 'As the Devil was going through Hobart Gaol, he saw a solitary cell; and the Devil was pleased for it gave him a hint, for improving the prisons in hell.' Take the excellent National Trust-run tour, or the one-hour Ghost Tour held most nights (bookings essential).

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