Hobart City Centre


Hobart City Centre is a suburb surrounded by metropolitan Hobart, which comprises the original settlement, the central business district, and other built-up areas. It is the oldest part of Hobart and includes many of the city's important institutions and landmarks, such as Parliament, the Supreme Court, Franklin Square, the Elizabeth Street Mall, the Royal Hobart Hospital, the Theatre Royal, State Library, the NAB Building, the Museum, and the Cenotaph. The city centre is located in the local government areas of the City of Hobart.
Although the city centre is one of the oldest and most developed areas of Hobart, demographically it is one of the less densely populated areas in the greater area of Hobart, due to its core being commercial. In an attempt to create a more vibrant city at night, the state government has been encouraging inner city residential development in recent years. The population of the city centre was 456 in 2006.

History

Settlement of Greater Hobart spawned from the settlement of Sullivans Cove on 21 February 1804, by order of David Collins who was most unimpressed with the initial landing site at Risdon Cove.

Geography

The Hobart city centre draws a sense of its identity from its location between the Derwent River and the foot hills of Mount Wellington. The city is concentrated with Low-rise office buildings, interspersed by parks such as Franklin Square and St Davids Park and historic precincts such as Sullivans Cove and Salamanca Place. Due to street width, the majority of Hobart CBD's streets are One-way with a few exceptions including Elizabeth Street, the main north-south thoroughfare of the city centre. Davey Street/Macquarie travel parallel as a one-way couplet carrying traffic between Hobart's major highways along the CBD's southern fringe. The streets run on a slightly warped grid pattern in the CBD, due to early planning by Lachlan Macquarie.

Governance

Administratively, the Hobart City Centre falls under the authority of the local government area of the City of Hobart. The Tasmanian Government also has authority over some aspects of the CBD, in particular the major state controlled roads passing through and around the city.

Commercial area

With the exception of Wrest Point Casino in Sandy Bay, the Hobart CBD contains all of Tasmania’s tallest buildings, including 39 Murray Street, 188 Collins Street and the Trafalgar Building. The tallest building in the city centre is NAB House at, however planning restrictions limit future developments to a height of. There have been some exceptions to this rule such as Wellington Centre standing at and the new Royal Hobart Hospital K1/K2 Twin Towers which when complete, will stand at high. The City centre has several shopping areas including the Wellington Centre, Centrepoint and the historically significant Cat & Fiddle Arcade. During 2007, a spectacular inner city fire was responsible for the loss of one of Hobart's Myer buildings and as a result will soon see construction of the Icon Complex, boasting a 5 level Myer with specialty shops as well as a Hotel with roof top bar.

Culture

There is a large concentration of cultural institutions within the CBD including: the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the State Library of Tasmania, the Playhouse Theatre, and the Theatre Royal.
Every December, the city hosts the conclusion of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race while concurrently holding the Taste Festival.
Every January the city hosts the Australian Wooden Boat Festival and the annual Royal Hobart Regatta is held during February.
Additional, the Salamanca Market is held at Salamanca Place every Saturday.