History of Hobart - Late 19th Century

Late 19th Century

Hobart Town had grown into a bustling port town by the mid 19th century. Local industries and commerce were thriving, and many local businesses began to succeed. Hobart Town's docks were struggling to cope with the demand now placed on them. The town's population was nearing 60,000 and ships were entering and departing the Derwent River on a nearly daily basis. The demand for berths and storage saw the construction of new docks and sandstone warehouses in an area which had been known as the 'Cottage Green', the former row of original cottages being demolished to make way for sandstone warehouses. By the mid 1840s, the bustling dock area had become known as the New Wharf, with access via Salamanca Place, named in honour of the Duke of Wellington's 1812 victory in the Battle of Salamanca. Many of the original warehouses still survive, used as galleries, studios, cafes, bars and restaurants.

Hobart's first major problems came with the combination of a general economic downturn in the 1840s, followed by the Victorian gold rush of the early 1850s. Large-scale migration to the Victorian goldfields occurred, creating a shortfall in local labour resources. As a response, the once booming economy of Hobart began to decline. Despite the economic and population declines of the early 1850s, the decade proved to be one of social and cultural advancement for the young city. Transportation of convicts to Van Diemen's Land was abolished in 1853, and calls for responsible self-government were successful, with a new constitution drafted, and Van Diemen's Land became an independent British Colony in 1856. The new colony immediately changed its name to Tasmania, to disassociate itself with its past as a penal colony.

Hobart Town was proclaimed as the capital, and the Customs House at Sullivans Cove was renovated to accommodate a two house Parliament House with the previous Tasmanian Legislative Council re-constituted as the upper house, and the newly formed Tasmanian House of Assembly as the lower house. Two years later in 1858, the elegant Tudor-Gothic style Government House was completed, and by 1866 a magnificent Italian Renaissance style Town Hall had been completed adjacent to Franklin Square and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. As the colony grew, so too did the need for more administrative buildings. The Treasury Offices were built between 1859 and 1864, and a Registry of Deeds Office was built in 1884.

It was not just the administrative needs of the colony that were increasingly being catered for, but also the spiritual needs. Construction on a Catholic Cathedral designed by architect William Wardell, widely regarded as Australia's finest architect of the 19th century, was commenced in 1860, and was to be built on the site of the first Roman Catholic Church in Tasmania. In 1866, St Mary's Catholic Cathedral was opened, but without the originally designed tower. The magnificent St David's Anglican Cathedral, seat of the Bishop of Tasmania, and administrative centre of the Anglican Diocese of Tasmania, was completed in 1868 in high Gothic style, designed by George Frederick Bodley.

By the late 19th century, the central waterfront area of Wapping, which included the original wharf area built on Hunter Island, had declined dramatically as a result of government attempts to control prostitution, gambling and excessive drinking. As the areas of Wapping and to a lesser extent, Glebe declined, Battery Point and Sandy Bay located to the south of the town, were becoming home to the town's more prosperous residents. Soon, Battery Point was centred around the pleasant Arthur's Circus, where many of the cottages and fine homes of the period can still be seen. Whereas Glebe enjoyed a resurgence, the shanties and brothels of Wapping were condemned, and many were destroyed to make way for new developments, such as the wool store, that survives to this day as the Old Woolstore Hotel. Part of the area had already been reclaimed in the early 1850s for the construction of the Hobart Gas Works, which was opened amidst much fanfare on 9 March 1857, bringing gas lighting to the streets of Hobart Town for the first time.

In 1870, the 48 metre high (158 ft) Shot Tower was constructed by Joseph Moir at Taroona, south of Hobart, for the purpose of manufacturing shot for the Tasmanian Colonial Forces. It used gravity to drop molten lead down the inside of the tower, which formed spherical pellets and solidify when it landed in cold water at the base of the tower.

The Hobart Electric Tramway Company commenced operation in 1893, providing Hobart with the first complete electric tramway in the Southern Hemisphere. The tramway proved very popular and the route from the city to Sandy Bay Beach was always crowded in summers during the early 20th century. The tramways expanded rapidly, and suburban growth was encouraged by the lines. By the early 20th century, tramlines ran from the city depot to North Hobart, Lenah Valley, Springfield, Glenorchy, Cascade Brewery, Proctor's Road, and Sandy Bay. Single deck trams were introduced in 1906, and the Hobart City Council took over control of the company in 1912, renaming it the Hobart Metropolitan Tramways. Electric trolley buses were introduced in 1935.

An economic depression struck Hobart in the early 1890s, but some companies succeeded in spite of it. In 1891 Henry Jones established a jam factory in which he began to manufacture preserved jams and spreads using locally sourced high quality fruit produce. The factory soon came to be known simply as 'The Jam Factory' to locals, and was soon exporting jam throughout the British Empire. His company soon grew into a substantial business under the name of Henry Jones IXL, and established a second factory in Victoria.

In 1895 American writer Mark Twain visited Hobart as part of his worldwide tour of the British Empire, and wrote about his visit in his 1897 book Following the Equator. In it he writes: