Virtual Hobart Town in Hobart, Tasmania | Museum

Virtual Hobart Town

Locality: Hobart, Tasmania

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25.01.2022 February is Maritime Month at Virtual Hobart Town. As part of the Australian Wooden Boat Festival, we had some great plans to celebrate our rich maritime heritage this month. Alas, COVID had other plans for us all. But, stay tuned for some COVID safe online content throughout the month instead.

23.01.2022 A very big thank you to all those who liked, commented on, or shared posts from Virtual Hobart Town in 2020. And a special thank you to those who purchased the App, or told others about it - proceeds from which go towards creating more engaging content about our colonial past. Looking forward to sharing more stories from our past with you all in 2021!

23.01.2022 #FestivalUpdate The time has come for us to make the incredibly complex decision on the future of the Australian Wooden Boat Festival 2021. We have tried our b...est to explore all possible avenues, but at this time it is not viable to run a festival without seriously risking public safety. We are incredibly disappointed that we cannot give our boat owners and the general public an event to look forward to. Therefore we are announcing today the cancellation of our festival for February 2021 BUT look forward to 10-13 February 2023! A full statement can be found on www.australianwoodenboatfestival.com.au Photo: Phil O'Halloran

23.01.2022 26th January 1804 After camping the night on the sandy bank of the freshwater stream, James Meehan continues his exploration, following the rivulet upstream. He will traverses south until he reaches a series of cascades, the current site of the Cascade Brewery, making observations of the terrain and vegetation along the way. This video starts at the current site of the Hope and Anchor Hotel, and flies upstream to the Wellington Bridge, in the Elizabeth Street mall. The path of the rivulet has been reproduced in digital form using measurements from Meehan’s early maps of Hobart, held by the Tasmanian Archives.

23.01.2022 Virtual Hobart Town on your smartphone - coming soon to your favourite app store. Explore colonial Hobart Town as a self-guided walking tour, or without even leaving your house. Stay tuned for more details!

22.01.2022 Causeway to Hunter Island. One of the joys of this project has been to help people who would not ordinarily be interested in history, learn something new about our past. One of the biggest surprises for people has been to learn how much the waterfront has changed, and especially that the iconic warehouses on Hunter Street were once located on an island. It wasn’t until 1820 that a stone causeway was constructed to link Hunter Island to the rest of the town. In the scene be...low The Australia Co. warehouse is just visible to the left (today's Drunken Admiral), the boat builder John Gray occupied the small stone building to the right. Bullock carts are ferrying goods to and from the warehouses and the ships anchored in the harbour. In the background the Commissariat Complex and Bond Store are located near the shore, a very different scene to the Dunn Place Car Park in front of TMAG today. It is easy to take our history for granted, so next time you are at the waterfront, take some time to imagine how different that scene may have been in days gone by, who may have travelled down the same paths, and just how many stories there are to explore. The Virtual Hobart Town app gives you the opportunity to jump inside colonial Hobart Town and experience this first-hand.

20.01.2022 In recent years it has become a tradition for many Hobartians to assemble at Salamanca on the last Friday before Christmas for ‘knock-off drinks’. But where would Hobartians have gone for a drink in colonial times? As we end a very challenging year and still face some restrictions for planning real Christmas drinks, it seems fitting to grab a pint of beer and go on a virtual tour of some of Hobart’s earlier drinking houses. This is just a small sample of the over thirty licensed premises in Hobart Town at the time.

20.01.2022 This sounds like a fascinating first-hand account of some dramatic events from our history. I wonder what other gems may be hiding in archives around the world?

18.01.2022 The Guard House. The Guard House stands opposite Government House, at the corner of Macquarie and Elizabeth Streets. In a town where one-third of the population consisted of convicted prisoners, a strong military presence in the centre of town served to reassure the public, but also remind them that Van Diemen’s Land was clearly a British colony. The military was responsible for overseeing the convict population, protecting the Governor, defending the civilian population f...rom bushranger or aboriginal attacks, and to defend the colony from external attack. The building housed the Tourist and Information Bureau at the turn of the century, and is now the site of the Colonial Mutual Life Building, constructed in 1936.

16.01.2022 When sitting by the fountain at Franklin Square in Hobart’s CBD, it is hard to imagine that this was once the site of a sprawling complex of buildings that represented the residency of the Governor of Van Diemen’s Land. The building was occupied by our Vice-regal representative until 1858 when Sir Henry Fox Young took up residence in the current Government House on the Domain. The various Governors of Van Diemen’s Land did not always have a pleasant time staying in this bui...Continue reading

15.01.2022 What a great time to be immersed in historic research and escape to other times...

14.01.2022 Stuck for school holiday ideas? You could take the kids (or grandkids) down to the waterfront and explore our colonial history using the Virtual Hobart Town App!

13.01.2022 Final Preparations are underway for the departure of the whaling Brig Caroline, in January 1829. Shore-based whaling stations operated in Van Diemen’s Land from 1806, but Caroline was the first of the pelagic (deep sea) whalers to be based in Hobart. By 1849 there were 34 similar vessels operating out of this port. Whaling was a prominent colonial industry, providing much wealth to the growing colony. The importance of this is recognised in the current Coat of Arms of the Hobart City Council, which has the Flying Childers, a whaler built by John Watson at Battery Point in 1846, sitting proudly above the crest.

12.01.2022 The Tasmanian borders are open again! Once again we can share amazing stories from our past with interstate visitors and help them to visualise life in colonial Van Diemen’s Land. The Virtual Hobart App is a great introduction to colonial-era Hobart, which can be used as a preparation for a planned trip to Hobart, or as an interactive walking tour once you are here.

12.01.2022 Imagine finding yourself stranded on a remote Tasmanian beach as you watch your ship sail off into the distance. Check out the gallery ‘The Piratical Seizure of the Brig Cyprus’ to see the story unfold.

11.01.2022 From the diary of Rev. Knopwood, 25th December 1805: Xmas Day morn at 8 the Colours were hoisted on Hunters Island at 11 all the Civil and Military attended Divine Service. Merry Christmas to all the fans of Virtual Hobart Town! Enjoy a sneak peek of things to come in 2021, as we look further back in time to the early years of settlement.

09.01.2022 Listen to Lucy Breaden from ABC Drive chat with John Stephenson about the Virtual Hobart Town project and what you can expect from the app.

08.01.2022 The Journey of the Female Convict Ship Mermaid (15th February - 26th June 1828).

07.01.2022 Old Government House c1828 (corner of Elizabeth & Macquarie Streets). You are standing in the carriageway of Old Government House. Directly behind us is Elizabeth Street (now the Bus Mall), the flag flies in front of the Guard House, strategically placed opposite the Governor's residence (now Atlas Café). The other corner is home to David Lord, the largest landowner in Van Diemen's Land (now the site of the General Post Office - the laneway used by postal vehicles is called Lord's Place).

07.01.2022 Wed Aug 5th, 1829, the Brig Cyprus is readied for her voyage to the penal settlement at Macquarie Harbour. This should be a routine voyage to supply the remote station with rations, and transport 31 prisoners to the settlement...

07.01.2022 Out Now - The 'Virtual Hobart Town' app for smartphone & Ipad. Explore colonial Hobart in 3D. Available on Google Play or the Apple App Store.

07.01.2022 30th Jan 1804 After struggling to find a reliable water source for his camp at Port Phillip Bay, Lt Governor David Collins abandons the site and heads south, towards the Derwent River in Van Diemen's Land. The camp was established at Sullivan Bay (what is now Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria) in October 1803, in accordance with Collins' instructions to form a colony on the northern edge of Bass Strait. The site was not considered suitable for a permanent sett...lement, and so explorers were sent around Port Phillip Bay, and even as far as the Tamar River on the southern side of Bass Strait, in search of a more suitable location. After failing to find anything closer, and with the approval of Governor King in Sydney, Collins sailed out of Port Phillip Bay on the 30th January with all the supplies, convicts and settlers that could fit on-board the Ocean and Lady Nelson. Due to a lack of space onboard these two ships, many stores were left behind, guarded by some soldiers and in the company of a few settlers who continued to manage their crops. On arrival at the Derwent, Collins was informed that James Meehan had identified a location that met all of his requirements for a future settlement; a fresh-water stream, a good supply of timber, and a nearby island that represented a secure site to store his supplies. Collins' party disembarked at Sullivans Cove just three weeks later to establish Hobart Town. It would be over 30 years before a permanent settlement was formed in what is now Victoria.

06.01.2022 To all the teachers and support staff who follow Virtual Hobart Town - Best wishes for the 2021 school year! May your lessons inspire a love of history and respect for our built heritage in the next generation you may even have a future historian, archivist or archaeologist in your class!

05.01.2022 What part of Virtual Hobart Town would you like to explore next?

04.01.2022 The question has been asked ‘why did you chose 1828 for the reconstruction?’ That’s a great question and worth exploring! This is a fascinating period in our history; 1828 marked 25 years since the first British settlement on the Derwent, the colony of Van Diemen’s Land was separated from NSW just three years earlier and was governed by George Arthur. It was a time of rapid progress in the colony. The famous colonial architect John Lee Archer, who designed many of our famous... public buildings, had arrived only six months prior, thus the version of Hobart Town that we see in the model is much like that which Archer would have seen on arrival. A January 1828 map shows Archer’s planned improvements for the harbour, if you look closely you can see the outline of the surveyed waterfront at the time. The historic shoreline represents the base for the 3D model. The map shows the location of buildings, there are even the names of individual owners or occupiers of these buildings what an amazing historic resource! We can combine these historic survey plans with artworks from the period, and 1828 provides two very detailed examples to work with. Augustus Earle produced his six-piece panorama, as viewed from the signal station at Battery Point (today’s Princes Park). And from the other side of the harbour George Evans captured the same scene. By combining these two images with John Lee Archers plan from the same period, we can start to build a 3D image of Hobart in 1828, and even assign the names of individuals to the buildings that we see. When looking at Hobart in 1828 you may recognise some of the buildings from today such as the Bond Store, the Drunken Admiral, the Court House and Solomon’s Store which will allow you to ‘get your bearings’ for the rest of the town. These same buildings were used as 'control points' when overlaying the historic maps in to a modern mapping system (GIS). Very few of the buildings built prior to 1825/26 have survived, and therefore a model taken at any earlier period would be a much harder townscape for us to interpret today. When we combine the accurate maps to work with and our own experience with the buildings that are still standing, it makes 1828 the perfect starting point for exploring our past. Take a look at the images below and see the amazingly detailed records that we have to work with.

03.01.2022 Images are good, videos are better, but with a 3D digital model we can jump inside the virtual world and take a look around! Join us on the Timber Jetty on Hunter Island, near today's First Settler's Memorial on Hunter Street. Use you mouse (or smartphone) to pan around!

03.01.2022 A big thank you to everyone who has joined us at Virtual Hobart Town this week! Stay tuned for more exciting content that will bring our history to life...