After the Blue Mountains we were again following our aborted 2020 itinerary and flying to Tasmania the next day.
Tasmania is an island state separated from the south of the Australian mainland by the Bass Strait. The state capital and largest city is Hobart with, it is estimated, 40% of the population living in the greater Hobart area.
Tasmania has an interesting history from the early aboriginal settlers, who were cut off from the mainland around 10,000 years ago, to the European settlers when the British colonised the island in 1803 and used it as a penal settlement.
Tasmania was first sighted by a European when Abel Tasman landed at today’s Blackman’s Bay in 1642. It was named Van Diemen’s Land after the sponsor of Abel Tasman’s voyage, Anthony van Diemen who was the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. The British retained this name when they established a settlement in 1803 with the name being changed in 1856 to Tasmania to distance itself from its history as a harsh penal colony.
We collected a hire car at Hobart Airport with a view, over the next seven days, to driving to Hobart, Port Arthur, Cradle Mountain and finally Launceston.
Hobart was not a big city so we had arranged a guide to give us a walking tour of the more historic areas.
Sir John Franklin, later to become infamous due to his voyages to find the North West Passage, was the Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen’s Land from 1837 to 1843. He will be remembered, along with is wife, for the efforts to improve and develop the colony by establishing a public school system and founding the Tasmanian Natural History Society.
Also in the park at Franklin Square was a statue of William Lodewyk Crowther who was the Premier of Tasmania from 1878 to 1879. He was apparently a controversial figure as he was suspected of allegedly mutilating the remains of an aboriginal man, named William Lanne in 1869. He was suspected of removing Lanne’s skull and sending it to the Royal College of Surgeons in London. Due to this history, the Hobart City Council voted to remove Crowther’s statue as an act of reconciliation. Prior to this happening, in May 2024 the statue was vandalised when a tool was used to cut through the legs and graffiti was sprayed on the plinth. This seems to be happening in many cities around the world these days where some people want to cancel history rather than learn from it.
Hobart is a mixture of the old and new like many cities and some of the houses in the nearby suburbs are just as interesting as the government buildings.
We then made our way up Kelly’s Steps to the Battery Point area of Hobart that sits above the port. This area has some 19th century houses and although not far from the port is a lot quieter but well worth a visit.
A house, known as Lenna of Hobart, used to be the only one at its location overlooking Battery Point when the foundation stones were laid in 1860. The original house where Lenna (which is a Tasmanian Aboriginal word for ‘house or hut’) stands was built by whaling Captain James Bayley who sold it to his business partner, Alexander McGregor, who had married Bayley’s sister, Harriett. The house has a lookout turret where Alexander McGregor was able to keep a watch for his returning ships.
Our local guide was friendly with the hotel owners so we were able to go up to the lookout turret and enjoy the sights over Hobart harbour.
The view from the Lookout over Battery Point has obviously changed dramatically since Alexander McGregor used to look for his ships returning to the harbour in the 19th Century. The Hotel contains a lot of pictures and artefacts that relate to its history and previous ownership so is definitely worth visiting.
Our morning tour finished here so we made our way further down the other side of Battery Point. Battery Point was originally named after the Mulgrave Battery that was established in 1818 as part of Hobart’s costal defences. The Battery was found to be in a poor strategic location and was eventually decommissioned in 1878. The site was given to the Hobart City Council for recreation and the area became a fashionable suburb known for its historic houses and colonial architecture.
The Semaphore Cottage is the oldest building at Battery Point, being built in 1818 as part of the Mulgrave Battery. It was a key part of the Hobart Port signalling system and evolved into Australia’s most extensive semaphore signalling system linking Hobart with Port Arthur and southeastern Tasmania. As one of the oldest surviving buildings in Hobart it represents an example of old Colonial Georgian architecture. We understand that it did open to the public on some days but unfortunately not when we were in Hobart.
Our afternoon visit was to the Cascades Female Factory Historic Site which was a penal colony for women from the early part of the 19th century. The site today is a mixture of buildings and the outlines of where the actual buildings stood.
The factory opened in 1828 with one yard and by 1853 it had five yards operating. The opening of the fifth yard coincided with the last year of transportation. The site for the Female Factory was purchased in 1827 by Governor George Arthur, from Thomas Yardley Lowes the owner of a failed distillery.
The first intake of female prisoners arrived in 1828 and gradually expanded to 700 with the female convicts and their children. At its peak, it was very overcrowded holding 1,200 women and children.
When the first women were sent to the Cascades, the Rules and Regulations for the management of the House of Correction were issued to the Principal Superintendent. The rules outlined the staff required to manage the establishment being a Superintendent, a Matron, an Overseer and Task Mistress for the Crime Class, a Porter, a Clerk and two Constables. They also stipulated how the women were to be divided, in both class and duties. Governor Arthur insisted that the women be placed in three distinct classes that ‘on no account be suffered to communicate with each other’.
The first class was to consist of women recently arrived from England who exhibited good behaviour on the journey (as reported by the surgeon on-board), as well as those returning from service with good characters and those who had successfully seen out their probation in second class. First class alone was considered assignable, and the women were sent to service when the appropriate employment could be obtained.
The second class was to comprise those who had been guilty of minor offences and those who, by their improved conduct, merited removal from the crime class. The crime class was the lowest rung on the ladder, comprising women who had been transported for a second time; those guilty of misconduct on their journey to the colony; those convicted of offences before the Supreme Court; or those who committed offences within the walls of the factory.
The class system regulated both clothing and daily tasks of the women while in the factory. The first class women were employed as cooks, task overseers and hospital attendants. Second class convicts were employed in making clothes for the factory and preparing and mending linen. The crime class was sentenced to the washtub – laundering for the factory, the orphan school and the penitentiary; they also carded and spun wool. All of these tasks were subject to change at the discretion of the Principal Superintendent.
November to March saw unrelenting hours of labour, with the shorter days in winter being the only respite. As the sun did not set until after dinner for a large part of the year, the women were working up to 12 hours a day and even the slightest disobedience to the rules was punishable.
To finish our day, we drove to the top of Mount Wellington that sits above Hobart and is part of the Wellington Park Reserve. The summit of Mount Wellington is 21 kilometres west of Hobart’s Commercial Business District and has some great views over Hobart and the harbour.
Copyright: Words and photos John Cruse 2025
