Hobart

:For other places and things named Hobart, see Hobart (disambiguation).

History

Hobart is the second-oldest city in Australia (after Sydney). Amid British concerns over the presence of French explorers, the first settlement was started in 1803 as a penal colony at Risdon Cove on the eastern shores of the Derwent River. In 1804 it was moved to a better location at the present site of Hobart at Sullivan's Cove. The area's original inhabitants were members of the semi-nomadic Mouheneer tribe. A series of bloody encounters with the Europeans and the effects of diseases brought by the settlers forced away the aboriginal population, which was rapidly replaced by free settlers and the convict population.

Related Topics:
Sydney - Explorers - Risdon Cove - Derwent River - Sullivan's Cove - Original inhabitants - Convict

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Charles Darwin visited Hobart Town in February, 1836 as part of the Beagle expedition. He writes of Hobart and the Derwent estuary in his Voyage of the Beagle

Related Topics:
Charles Darwin - February - 1836 - Beagle expedition

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:...The lower parts of the hills which skirt the bay are cleared; and the bright yellow fields of corn, and dark green ones of potatoes, appear very luxuriant... I was chiefly struck with the comparative fewness of the large houses, either built or building. Hobart Town, from the census of 1835, contained 13,826 inhabitants, and the whole of Tasmania 36,505.

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But since the Derwent River was one of Australia's finest deepwater ports and was the centre of the Southern Ocean whaling and seal trade, it rapidly grew into a major port, with allied industries such as ship-building. Hobart Town became a city in 1842, and was renamed Hobart in 1875.

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