History

A magnificent deep-water harbour and a fresh rivulet flowing from Mt Wellington convinced the first European colonists to choose the site for settlement. An identical replica of one of their ships – the Lady Nelson – sails in Hobart’s harbour today.

Before the settlers landed in 1803, Tasmanian Aboriginal people had lived along the river for thousands of years. Their shell middens can still be seen above some Derwent shorelines.

In parts of today’s Hobart, it’s easy to feel as if you’ve stepped back a couple of hundred years. Take a walk through Arthur Circus in Battery Point, where the city’s oldest cottages snuggle together around a village green, stroll through one of the city’s heritage parks, in the shade of mature English trees, or wander along Salamanca Place, with its line of Georgian warehouses, the sandstone chipped by convict chisels.