A short one hour flight from Melbourne had us landing in Hobart, Tasmania. It’s a small airport. The kind we like. A bus ride into town and we were checking into our hotel by 6 PM.

We walked around the waterfront and had seafood chowder in the oldest continuously operating pub in Australia, the Hope & Anchor.

It’s a small but nice waterfront. Lots of restaurants. The cruise ships seem to be the smaller ones.

We spent one day visiting museums and shops on the waterfront.

We had an amazing breakfast at Jackman & McRoss. It lasted us all day.

We walked through the Mawson’s Huts Replica Museum. The Mawson expedition to Antarctica departed Hobart in 1911.

We visited the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery. It is shocking and disturbing what was inflicted upon the indigenous people by the English “colonizers”. The entire local population and culture were wiped out. The museum tells the stories and documents the atrocities.

One particular piece of art I found fascinating. It details the lives of women arrested for the most minor offenses – stealing food, crimes of poverty, etc – then sent to Australia/Tasmania for years of hard labor or worse.

Australiangeographic.com.au

The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra has on display The Rajah quilt, created by the unidentified women of the HMS Rajah convict ship.

nga.gov.au