A Walk in the Park

There's been short hiatus in the city between the Christmas holiday and the arrival of the Sydney-Hobart race boats. The big maxis (100'+ boats) arrive in two days, but the rest of the fleet takes a few more days and the festivities await their arrival. The whole city seems poised to burst. Being in Cornelian Bay, we decided on a summer's day walk before the hubbub begins again. We found “urban walks' listed by the Hobart City Council which offered more self-guided walking tours through the city's parks.

We left the dinghy on the sandy beach at Cornelian Bay and headed along the foreshore walk into town.

We could peek out at Cups every now and then as we followed the treed path. The walk took us past the entrance to the Botanical Gardens and underneath the Tasman Bridge, which rumbled loudly above us. We had already visited Queen's Domain and the Gardens so we continued on into town.

Once in the city, we covered some previously walked tracks, but with a new mission. We headed into Franklin Square. Named after Lieutenant Governor Sir John Franklin, a distinguished explorer and governor of Van Diemen's land in the 1840's, this shady park is criss-crossed with neat brick pathways, lined with oak trees. Franklin wasn't particularly well-liked, we read, primarily because he introduced a new probationary program for convicts which essentially ended free labor in the colony and ruffled many feathers. They still erected a statue to him in the middle of the park as well as a fountain. The park is also the transit hub for most local buses.

It was a quick walk to St. David's Park. We enjoyed this park for the Carols by Candlelight a few nights ago. It looked totally different in the daylight. We hadn't really noticed the wonderful lions that grace the Park's main entrance.

We also hadn't realized that this park was Hobart's first cemetery in 1804. Nine hundred were once buried here though many of the remains have now been relocated. David Collins, first Lieutenant Governor for whom the park is named, is still interred here in a casket of Huon pine, a large memorial marking the spot.

By the 1830's, the cemetery was unattended and neglected. The gravestones crumbled and toppled. The bush took over and unsavory characters used the grounds for hideouts and nefarious deeds. It was reclaimed by the city in 1919 and restored. Some headstones still remain. Memorial walls have been erected and parts of headstones, inscriptions still faintly visible, have been mounted on the walls.

Parliament Park borders Salamanca Place. With the state Parliament building in the background, the park is all lawn, nice for sitting and reading under a tree.

Not far away is Prince's Park. Originally part of the strategic Mulgrave Battery in 1818, in 1855, it was renamed Prince of Wales Battery and expanded to include the Prince Albert Battery higher on the hill. A tunnel system is still available for tour visits. An old semaphore station which once signalled ships entering Hobart Harbor and relayed messages to Port Arthur, still stands on the edge of the park. Historic signs mingle with children's playground equipment. The sun dial was very accurate.

We headed back along the foreshore again. We had passed Mawson Place a hundred times while were tied up at Elizabeth Street Pier, but never really paid it its due. Named after Sir Douglas Mawson, noted Australian geologist and Antarctic explorer, this small waterfront pavilion offers contemporary sculpture with a background of the Constitution Dock and funky floating fish'n'chip shops that require you to scoot down on your knees to place orders when it's low tide. A polycarbonate skating rink had just been erected, but the rentable figure skates had not arrived yet, so the seagulls had the place to themselves.

We retraced our steps back to Cornelian Bay and Cups. Tomorrow hopefully more S-H race boats will have arrived and the Tasmania Taste Fest will be in full swing.

In Search of Hobart's Best Pub

Today is Summer Solstice in Australia. What better day than today to find a good pub? We weren't interested in a pub crawl or a pub tour ($20pp) or a new pub with no history...or even a pub with lots of people and pokies (poker machines). We were on the hunt for Hobart's oldest, more traditional pubs and the logical place to look was along the waterfront. Some things don't change: sailors like companionship and grog. Being downtown Hobart, with Cups tied up at the Elizabeth Street Pier, has some definite advantages. We can hunt for pubs day and/or night.

With a history that revolves around the sea, Tasmania has no dearth of pubs. Hobart, being its oldest city, currently offers ~40 registered pubs, but that's nothing compared to the early days. Within 20 years of its settlement in 1803, Hobart Town boasted 50 registered pubs for its 10,000 inhabitants and there were, by all accounts, many more pubs of the “unregistered” variety. The pubs that have survived have a rich history. They seem to be clustered around historic Battery Point and Sullivan's Cove, which includes trendy Salamanca Place, so sussing them out was not difficult. We could have gotten some help by consulting Pubs of Tasmania: in Search of the Holy Grail, that evidently provides lot of history, trivia and secrets, but we're way too cheap to do that. Plus part of the fun is finding things out for ourselves.

I came up with six pubs I thought were worthy of our attention. All were originally operating in the mid-1800s and all have some good history behind their walls. We did not have a beer in each, as we were interested in concluding the tour in one day and didn't think we'd be attentive to detail in the last couple of pubs if we'd already drunk three or four pints.

The Customs House Hotel was first on the list. Licensed in 1846, it got its name from its location...yup, right across the street from Hobart's Custom House (now Parliament). We thought it to be pretty non-descript. It's been “gentified” and modernized and in the process, has, perhaps, lost some of its charm.

There is supposedly a tunnel that leads from Parliament to the hotel, but we couldn't find any more information about it. Probably needed to take one of those $20/pp pub tours to get the inside skinny.

We headed to Salamanca Place, an upscale market area with classy boutiques and restaurants and a couple of older pubs. We came across Irish Murphy's first. It's one of the oldest pubs in town and has had several different names. It was considered a pretty rough place as late as the 1950s when Ma Dwyer owned it. It was called Ma's Blues House then because of its crude clientele and its appeal to the criminal element in town. Evidently back alleys provided quick exits when the police showed up.

We took a peek inside. Though housed in an historic Georgian sandstone building, it's a typical Irish-themed pub and restaurant; it has a sister pub in Brisbane by the same name. It appeals to the tourist and younger crowd, I'd say, with evening entertainment and kitschy “authentic” Irish décor.

Knopswood's Retreat, originally known as Whaler's Return, is just a couple of blocks away. It's noted in Lonely Planet as the best pub in Hobart. We're not sure what LP's criteria is, but we certainly wouldn't agree. Once again, it's gentrified and appeals to an upscale after-work/weekend crowd. There's a sign outside: A Friday Night Institution since 1829. The stained glass panels above the bar with scenes of historic Hobart were nice, but the atmosphere was still commercial in our opinion.

The Shipwright Arms aka Shippie's was our idea of a neighborhood pub. First of all, it's actually located in a neighborhood, not in touristy part of town. The sign advertising $9.50 lunches “had us at hello”. We walked in and bellied up to the English-style bar. The barkeep greeted everyone who came in by name...it was like Cheers... except nobody knew our name.

We took a look at the bar menu. Hmm... lamb's brains with mushroom sauce for $13.50. Definitely too expensive for our budget (thank, God). Moving right along to the luncheon specials, I settled on scallop pie and David opted for cajun chicken. We each had a pint of Cascade Pale Ale. We were parched after all of our pub exploring activities. We loved the early maritime photos dotting the walls and the Sydney-Hobart race memorabilia. We especially liked their website notice: No Pokies • No TAB • No Tofu • No Keno • No Pool Table • No Live Music • No Bok Choy

With a lunch and a pint under our belts, we got back on track and headed to the Brunswick Hotel right in the middle of downtown on Liverpool Street. The Brunswick is the second oldest continuously licensed pub in Australia c1827 and boasts “the world’s second largest Chesterfield” (tufted leather couch). We saw the famous Chesterfield, but it was totally occupied and not photographable at the moment... nor all that interesting. We had no inclination to know where the world's largest Chesterfield resided.

New owners describe it as “a really exciting Gastro Pub.” The bar was a traditional style and the décor was “pub-ish”. Its rooms have been renovated and offers backpacker-type rooms as well as more upscale accommodation.

Just a marker notes the location of the Scotch & Thistle Tavern which stood on the corner of Liverpool and Barrack Streets in the 1820's. It was unearthed in 2011 during a construction. We saw the marker on the street and had to do a little digging ourselves to learn more about it.

Last on the list was the Hope and Anchor Hotel, reputed to be Australia's oldest pub and we were really looking forward to visiting it. Built in 1807, just three years after Hobart was settled, it has lots of history, but is, unfortunately, no longer in business and the building is for sale.

At the end of the day, an unanimous vote amongst the crew determined that the Nine of Cups' Best Pub in Hobart Award goes to Shippies … despite the lamb brains.

Salamanca Market

For over 40 years, the Salamanca Market has operated every Saturday morning* rain or shine. We walked along Salamanca Place and through Salamanca Square last week on our self-guided historical walking tour of Hobart. There were people having lunch at sidewalk cafes and a few browsed in the many boutiques along the avenue. We strolled along, hand in hand. It was nothing like the throngs we saw on a sunny Saturday morning. The whole place was transformed. Add 300 vendor stalls, close off the street, then entice thousands of people to come and you're bound to see a difference.

Like many American seaports that have seen gentrification over the years (Portland and Baltimore come to mind immediately), for more than a century, Hobart's waterfront was a rough, tough place where whalers and sailors ruled. Huge Georgian-style sandstone warehouses line the streets now known as Salamanca Place. A change came about in the 1960's. At first, it was a cheap rent district for artists. Then the “market” happened in 1972 and rents gradually crept up and abandoned warehouses became retail space and restaurants. Today, it's trendy and touristy and mobbed.

Charles and Camilla were here in Hobart a month ago. How could we have missed them? They, too, visited the Salamanca Market. They also visited the Antarctic Division (so did we) and historic Richmond (so did we) and a Sorrell sheep stud farm (no...we did NOT do this). We've pretty much adhered to their itinerary though we've done it with a lot less hoopla and it's taken us months instead of a day. Of course, they had wheels...and a driver.

The market street, Salamanca Place, is described as “plane-tree lined”. What the heck is a plane tree? Judging from the leaves and a little research, we'd call it a sycamore tree in the US. Big, huge shade trees that really did their job in the brilliant morning Tassie sun. We fought our way up one lane and down another the whole length of the avenue … no casual strolling today.

There were buskers. We like buskers. A blue man statue caught my eye. He winked at me. I threw him a few coins. There was a bagpipe ensemble playing Christmas carols. A one-man band serenaded us for awhile. Santa had come to town and was set up under a small marquis (tent), listening intently to his little supplicants, making his list, checking it twice, all the while sweating in his Santa suit in a Tassie heatwave.

And then the 300 vendor stalls. Oh, my, that's a lot of vendors. There were food booths selling everything from wood-fired pizza complete with pizza oven on site to Turkish coffee to fairy floss to sizzling sausage. There were produce and flower stalls. A green grocer shouted out prices for his fresh corn, raspberries and Tasmanian cherries. There were some chintzy souvenirs and t-shirts at triple the price we'd seen for them in Sydney. Mostly though, there was a diverse mix of wares and though we bought little, we enjoyed looking. Antiques, used books, Tasmanian lavender products, Akubra hats, handmade jewelry, pottery, Tasmanian woolen socks, native plants, carved native woods, Tasmanian honey... you name it, it was there.

We enjoyed it enough to return this week on a rainy Saturday morning. We wore our foul weather gear and trekked down the foreshore walk to the market place, splashing through the puddles. All the vendors were set up. People huddled beneath umbrellas to keep dry. There were definitely not as many people around … our kind of shopping day.

So, what did we buy? A loaf of putanesaca bread, a large punnet of fresh Tassie strawberries and most importantly, some tiny buri palm Australian animals to use as Christmas decorations. Distinctive, different and a fond memento from our holiday season in Hobart.

*A note: when Christmas or Anzac Day fall on a Saturday, the market is held the following Sunday.