We talk a lot about visiting and staying in the hub of Tasmania, but we never really learn all that much about it! So, my curiosity got me and I wanted to take a peek into the history of Hobart as a city.
A little geography: Hobart is holed up on Sullivan's Cove, with all current urbanization radiating around that area. The city continues to grow bit by bit, although most of its growth as slowed in recent years.
Hobart was founded as a British settlement in 1803, but, as many colonial histories go, there was a history behind that. We've talked about it a lot in class, so to gloss over it, Tasmanian Aborigines used to live in the area. The evidence of their stay is sadly damaged because of the intense urbanization of Hobart, so we know little about that area.
Hobart, like Australia and Tasmania, started out as a penal colony - but it also doubled as a defensive position. From Hobart, the British could monitor the workings of the French, who had a hold on many islands in the South Pacific Ocean. Because of this early worry, Hobart is Tasmania's second oldest city! It's only second to Sydney.
After casting off the chains of being a penal colony (pun intended), Hobart became a bustling whaling town, and fell from its perch relatively quickly. Hobart is host to a lot of those issues - due to its isolation and distance from many other hubs, Hobart is very much affected by the swinging of the world economy.
In more recent history, Hobart is well known for being the final port to go to Antartica (as was written about in this very blog!)
Next time, I might write about a couple of the landmarks that we can see around Hobart during our very short free time.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Hobart
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/583912/Tasmania
http://www.studyabroad.com/programs/oceania,australia,sydney+other,sydney-other,sydney/default.aspx
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