This is a photographic journal of our visit to Hobart.

We attended a function at Government House  on arrival and I loved every minute of being there. Of course it was exciting to be introduced to the Governor and her Husband, but it was the historic house that held so many surprises.

A unique feature of the ball room is the beautiful painted ceiling, the colors reflecting in the beautiful carpet on the floors of some of the rooms.

The house is situated on 15 hectares of land.  It is part of a complete estate comprising 4.5 hectares of established gardens and ponds, paddocks, cottages, stables and other buildings.

The gardens are regarded as one of the finest private gardens from the Victorian era in the country.  They are thought to have been laid out by Mr William Thomas, landscape gardener, in accordance with plans drawn up by the architect of Government House, William Porden Kay.  The garden has been maintained much as it was developed in the 1850s and 1860s and includes fowl yards, an orchard, and kitchen and picking gardens. The produce from the garden is used in the Government House kitchen.  Five full time gardeners are responsible for all aspects of the garden’s maintenance.

stunning gardens.

The next day I visited the Salamanca Market.

Salamanca Market operated just in the summer for the first few years of its life. It started 4 weeks before Christmas and ran until Easter. It proved to be so popular and successful that the Tasmanian Puppet Theatre, in 1975, established a Winter Market. In 1977 they were joined and aided in their market’s operation by the Salamanca Arts Centre.

Salamanca Market had grown quite considerably by 1977, with many stallholders attending regularly and so an informal Stallholders’ Association, chaired by Philip Broughton, was established. He negotiated the concept of ‘Permanent Stallholders’ with the Council. This resulted in regular stallholders being identified, assigned fixed sites and paying rent in advance.

Today it is overflowing with patrons, artists sharing their wares and the crowd weaves its way past the stalls of glorious goodies accompanied by buskers playing a delightful  mix of cultural music.

I spent five hours there, it was very easy to do and people watching is a must.

Then on the the museum and Art Gallery.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit