Hobart’s heritage is one of our greatest assets. Few Australian cities possess such a remarkable combination of Georgian and Victorian architecture, sandstone buildings, historic streetscapes, a working waterfront and an extraordinary human story stretching from Tasmania’s First Peoples through European settlement to the modern city.
Our heritage helps define Hobart’s character. I have spent much of my working life directly involved in restoring and activating heritage buildings. The Soundy Building, State Cinema, Crescent Hotel and Hope and Anchor Hotel demonstrate what can be achieved when historic buildings are treated not simply as structures to preserve, but as places that can continue contributing to our community.
Good heritage conservation must therefore involve both preservation and activation. A restored building that contains businesses, entertainment, hospitality, arts or community activity generates the income required to maintain it while allowing new generations to experience it.
Hobart also has an opportunity to think more ambitiously about its historic civic precinct. The corridor encompassing Macquarie Street, Franklin Square, Treasury, Town Hall, TMAG, City Hall and Dunn Place contains some of Tasmania’s most important heritage places. Yet parts of it remain fragmented and underused.
Rather than considering each property separately, I believe Council should encourage coordinated thinking about this entire precinct. Dunn Place, City Hall and the surrounding public buildings could play a much greater role in telling Hobart’s story and accommodating cultural, visitor and community uses. That could include better recognition of the original Hobart Rivulet, Tasmania’s Aboriginal history and the development of the colonial settlement and street grid.
Our heritage should never be taken for granted. Protect it, maintain it, understand it — and where appropriate, bring it back to life.
