Hobart, Tasmania

People say that Melbourne is about as European as you get in Australia but, for me, it’s Hobart in Tasmania that’s a little slice of Europe in the Southern Hemisphere, all neat architectural lines adorned with vintage typography, stylish whisky bars and trendy eateries.

As Australia’s closest city to Antartica, Hobart has a very ‘European’ climate too. Temperatures during a summer visit can range between 11 and 30 degrees, so it very much reminded me of being back in Cornwall when I was there; there were even open fires lit in a couple of the pubs.

I spent three days down in Hobart at the end of last month, staying in The Old Woolstore Apartment Hotel on Macquarie Street and visiting various local attractions. The first was Salamanca Place where I grabbed a bite to eat and bought a Richard Flanagan (award-winning Tasmanian novelist) book from The Hobart Bookshop.

The next place I checked out was the Museum of Old and New Art, by far my favourite art gallery in the world at the time of writing. Another highlight in my trip was a walk around the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, something I strongly recommend for all the horticultural fans out there.

For after-hour larks, I recommend Lark Distillery, Tasmania’s original single malt whiskey bar, and Waterman’s Beer Market – the booze is expensive, but they have a great playlist, so maybe treat it as your nightcap destination.

Hobart’s harbour juxtaposes a mess of fishing nets, pots and ropes with tidy pastel-coloured buildings. You can grab a good portion of fish and chips from several floating fish restaurants along there, and eat them looking across to the mountains. It’s all very idyllic and picturesque. Here’s how it looked through the lens of my Pentax MV1 35mm film SLR camera…

All words and photos:  Rosie Pentreath

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