Hobart has the best concentration of preserved colonial architecture in the country, though the need to develop the capital and its environs as an industrial base has led to atmospheric pollution along the Derwent that has damaged the stone buildings of colonial Hobart.
Battery Point, so named because it was the site of a gun emplacement in 1818 is today a sweep of 19th-century terraces, cottages, and restored gardens. The Maritime Museum of Tasmania is situated in an archetypal Battery Point residence of the 1830s. The Theatre Royal (1837) is a colonial building restored after suffering considerable damage in a fire in 1984. At Salamanca Place, 1830s warehouses, once serving the busy dock area, have now been converted to modern use; an open-air market is held here. At the intersection of Murray Street and Macquarie Street, in an architectural vista scarcely duplicated in any other Australian capital, all the buildings to be seen are 19th-century originals: the old Law Courts, a collection of mid-19th-century terrace houses, and St David's Cathedral. Much more controversial components of Hobart's cityscape are the Sheraton Hotel (1987) and, initially and for different reasons, the Wrest Point Casino—the first such venture in Australia.Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Hobart Information info
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