Hobart Free Tour and Exploring the City

Monday March 18 was a mainly cloudy day, but we had lovely sun from 4:00 p.m. to sunset. High about 22C. We met for our Free Tour at 10:30 a.m. in the centre of St. David's Park, about a 7 minute walk from our hostel. Our guide was Bianca, a young student. The tour lasted about 2 hours. While we learned some interesting history of Hobart, on the whole, it could have been more substantive.

However, we did learn that St. David's Park was originally a cemetery and that while the vast majority of graves were moved, many of the original headstones remained in the park on a number of walls.

Entrance to St. David's Park-- opened in 1926

Beautiful trees in the park

Bianca telling the story of the former cemetery

What was fascinating about the gravestones was the level of detail about each person; the fact that many were infant deaths. Often women who had just arrived also died after very difficult voyages to Tasmania.

Died in the same month that she arrived in 1833

Unfortunately killed by a horse at 12 years old

Captain John Laughton drowned 1827

Infant deaths

A few graves, including a large monument to David Collins (whom the park was named after) remain in the park. Colonel David Collins (1756-1810) was a British administrator of Britain's first Australian colonies. In 1788, he was the founding Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of New South Wales. In 1804, he became the founding Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of Van Diemens Land, which in 1901 became the state of Tasmania. Abel Tasman was the first European to run into Tasmania in 1642. He named the island Van Dieman's Land after the Dutch East Indies' governor. It is estimated that there were between 5000-10,000 Indigenous people in Tasmania when Europeans arrived, who had been there for around 50,000 years.

In1804, 74 convicts were shipped out to Van Dieman's Land and by 1833 about 2000 convicts a year were sent to Tasmania as punishment for often-trivial crimes.

Monument and grave of David Collins

We walked over to site where the Hobart Town Gaol had been located. It had been vacated in 1857. In July 1859, a new building on this site became the head office of the Hobart Savings Bank. It is no longer a bank, but the lettering still remains. There was a memorial plaque in the sidewalk dealing with the execution of Mary McLauchlan in 1830 for infanticide. According to our guide, she had been in the employ of a very abusive man who got her pregnant. She had come to Hobart as a convict, having been found stealing. Many minor criminals were allowed to work once they got to Tasmania. It was only the most serious criminals who were put in gaol once they arrived. Her employer, not wanting to admit paternity, accused her of stealing and the magistrate convicted her, even though she denied stealing and had said that her employer was abusive. She went to jail and had her baby who died shortly after birth (death in childbirth was quite common back in the early 18th century). She was not given the benefit of the doubt and was convicted of infanticide and hung very quickly.

A bit of history

Former site of gaol and Hobart Savings Bank

Another beautiful building - now a government building

We walked over to Franklin Square to hear the story of Sir John Franklin (1786-1847), the Arctic explorer whom of course, we knew disappeared on his last expedition, attempting to navigate the Northwest Passage. What we didn't know was that he also served as Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land from 1837-1843. Our guide told us that in 1828 he married Jane Griffin (a friend of his first wife who had died in 1825), who was very ambitious and ensured that he was knighted.

When they came to Hobart, his wife worked to set up a university-- she wanted to "civilize" the colony. Our guide also said that the couple had taken an aboriginal girl from an orphanage, even though she wasn't real an orphan (rather the daughter of a chief), who lived with them while they were in Hobart, but whom they abandoned when they returned to England. The girl was not accepted back in her tribe and became an alcoholic and died at 18. A very different picture than the Harper Government and media presented in the search for his ships.

Statue of Sir John Franklin in Franklin Square

We continued our tour at the waterfront. We were told about the H. Jones & Co IXL Jams factory that dominated one part of the waterfront. The group of buildings is located on what was once Hunter Island. The island was connected to the foreshore by a causeway in about 1820. The company was established by Henry Jones (1862-1926) in Hobart in 1891. His personal motto was "I excel in everything I do." The 1920s were the heyday of Henry Jones' jam factory, which was claimed as the largest and most modern in the world outside of England, employing 1100 people in the peak season. Its jams were sent all over the world from Ocean Pier, only a few feet away. Jam was made at this location until 1979 when the factory closed down. There are still plants in Victoria's Goulburn Valley. Today, most of the buildings have been converted into cafés, art galleries, office space and an Art Hotel.

In 2004, the IXL business was the leading manufacturer of fruit spreads in Australia. It In 2004, an Australian food company SPC Ardmona Ltd bought the business for $51 million. In 2005, IXL was bought by Coca-Cola Armatil.

The Jam factory buildings

We then walked across the street to see the statues located in front of another new hotel, MACq 01 Hotel.

MACq01 Hotel on the waterfront

The statues are called "Footsteps Toward Freedom" and are by Rowan Gillespie (Irish sculptor,
b. 1953). They were unveiled in October 2017 by the Governor of Tasmania and the President of Ireland. The plaque notes that 13,000 convict women were transported to Van Diemen's land between 1803-1833, bringing with them 2000 children. They disembarked on Hunter's Island where the Hotel and statues are located. The names of the women are engraved on the steps under the statues and the children's names under the statue of the young boy.

Rowan Gillespie also did a series of statues on Toronto's waterfront (Ireland Park) called "Famine" which was unveiled in 2007.

Footsteps to Freedom

Close up

Names of convicts and their crimes--- i.e. stealing a violin; killing a cow etc.

The harbour is very deep and peaceful

We walked a bit further to another series of sculptures on the waterfront.

Real bird and penguins

Bianca, our guide-- noting that it looked like the first selfie- with the camera in front of the statue

The statue was called the Bernachhi Tribute, "Self-Portrait", Louis and Joe. Tasmanian Louis Bernacchi (1876-1942) was the first Australian to winter in Antarctica. He was a scientist, photographer and writer. His favourite Husky, Joe, had travelled on some of his expeditions.

Parliament House

We then took a look at Parliament House. It was originally designed as a customs house, but changed use in 1841, when Tasmania achieved self-government.

Our guide also told us that the Tasmania Greens were the first established "Green" party in the world. The party's history can be traced back to the formation of the United Tasmania Group which first ran candidates in the 1972 election. Early campaigns were to stop flooding from dams and to address destructive logging activities. Bob Brown, former Senator and Parliamentary Leader of the Australian Greens was elected to the Australian Senate on the Tasmanian Green ticket in 1996 and was re-elected in 2001 and 2007. He was also the first openly gay member of the Parliament of Australian and an Australian political party. He retired in 2012.

Apartments in old silos

After our tour, we went for a coffee and sandwich at Parklane espresso in Salamanca Square.

We ate outside--- looking into the small coffee shop. Very good coffee.

We then walked over to the building where the ferries to the Museum of Old & New Art (MONA) leave. There are a number of artisanal shops in the building, including Grandewe which sells sheep cheese and also makes Gin and Vodka with sheep's whey. It had won a number of awards.

Excellent gin

Boat in Harbour

Steps leading to the Macq 01 Hotel

We wandered into the Arts Centre in the old Jam Factory buildings. There was a piece entitled: Three Tasmanian Time Arches: Time Part, Contemporary Time and Time Future by Peter Taylor 1988. It was a work commissioned by the Bicentennial Authority of Australia.

Tasmanian Time Arches

We've seen posters for Harmony Day

We walked back to our neighbourhood and then went a bit further to Arthur Circus, a lovely roundabout with beautifully preserved cottages around the park. Arthur Circus was part of an original grant to the Reverend Robert Knopwood (from the Bobby's walk poster we had seen our first day here). It was purchased by Governor Sir George Arthur in 1829. When he resold the land almost 20 years later, the plaque in the park noted that "the auction advertisement described "delectable building sites in a neighbourhood that will inevitably become The Resort of the Beau Monde."