New Town is a suburb of the city of

Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, about north of the central business district of Hobart. It is generally considered Hobart's oldest suburb, settled just a week after

Sullivans Cove Sullivans Cove is on the River Derwent adjacent to the Hobart City Centre in Tasmania. It was the site of initial European settlement in the area, and the location of the earlier components of the Port of Hobart. History The cove was the init ...

. It was historically the home of many of Hobart's wealthiest citizens, and New Town features a large number of grand residences, churches, and public buildings. The large farms were broken up following the world wars and it is now an inner city residential suburb. Many of its streets are lined with

Federation style Federation architecture is the architectural style in Australia that was prevalent from around 1890 to 1915. The name refers to the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, when the British colonies of Australia collectively became the Commonw ...

cottages. It is surrounded by the suburbs of North Hobart,

Mount Stuart Mount Stuart is a mountain in the Cascade Range, in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It is the second highest non-volcanic peak in the state, after Bonanza Peak (Washington), Bonanza Peak and seventh-highest overall. Mount Stua ...

Lenah Valley Lenah Valley is a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania. It is situated in the foothills of Mount Wellington, west of the CBD between Mount Stuart, New Town and the City of Glenorchy. Lenah Valley was originally known as Kangaroo Bottom, later Kangaroo V ...

and Moonah, with the Queen's Domain just to the south-east. Most of the locality is within the Hobart local government area, with 2.5% within Glenorchy.

History

At the time of Hobart's re-settlement on the western shore of the Derwent River in 1804, the first free settlers were landed at New Town Bay a day after the military and convict landing on Hunter Island on 20/21 February. Some early buildings remain including Pitt Farm which is the second oldest farmhouse in Australia. St John's Anglican Church in New Town has an unbroken record of use as a parish church, from the first service on 20 December 1835 up to the present. The building was designed by the Tasmanian government civil engineer and architect, John Lee Archer. New Town Post Office opened on 1 January 1842. Video City opened the largest

video rental shop A video rental shop/store is a physical retail business that rents home videos such as movies, prerecorded TV shows, video game cartridges/discs and other media content. Typically, a rental shop conducts business with customers under conditi ...

in Australia on New Town Road in 2002. The store remained a vibrant cultural institution long after the arrival of online streaming services in the 2010s. After selling its catalogue of over 30,000 video titles, the store ceased trading in 2019.

Today

New Town had the only two single-sex public schools in Tasmania -

Ogilvie High School Hobart City High School is a government co-educational high school in New Town, Hobart. Hobart City High School was formed in 2022 when Oglivie High School and New Town High School merged. The merged schools are now co-educational and were the la ...

for girls, and New Town High School for boys (Now combined to make "Hobart City Highschool"). There is also a third main school in New Town, the

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Sacred Heart College, New Town Campus, with over 1000 students. New Town Primary School is over a hundred years old. The major shopping centre is Centro New Town Plaza, which houses a

Kmart Kmart ( ), formerly legally registered as Kmart Corporation, now operated by Transformco, is a department-store chain and online retailer in the United States and Territories of the United States, its territories. It operates four remaining Kma ...

, a Coles Supermarket and several smaller specialty shops. New Town is well known for its leafy streets flanked by Colonial, Georgian,

Federation A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

and

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

residences, with many large homes and mansions scattered throughout the suburb. Architects who have worked on New Town homes include Thomas Reibey Atkinson, grandson of

Mary Reibey Mary Reibey née ''Haydock'' (12 May 177730 May 1855) was an English-born merchant, shipowner and trader who was penal transportation, transported to Australia as a convicts in Australia, convict. After gaining her freedom, she was viewed by he ...

, and Henry Hunter, one of Hobart's most prominent early colonial architects. The InterCity Cycleway passes directly through the suburb, on its course from

Claremont Claremont may refer to: Places Australia *Claremont, Ipswich, a heritage-listed house in Queensland * Claremont, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart * Claremont, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth * Town of Claremont, Perth * Claremont Airbase, an ...

to the city. The main road in New Town is known as "New Town Road" and follows on from Elizabeth Street in Hobart. The road connects Hobart with the neighbouring city of Glenorchy. Other main roads in New Town are Augusta Road, which leads into

, and Giblin Street which becomes Forster Street and then becomes Risdon Road as it continues down towards the

Brooker Highway The Brooker Highway is a highway in the Australian state of Tasmania. As one of Hobart's three major radials, the highway connects traffic from the Hobart central business district, city centre with the northern suburbs and is the major road con ...

References

Gallery

File:1906-Moncrieff-38-Cross-Street.jpg , A view of Cross Street, New Town, with backdrop of Mount Wellington File:Federation_architecture_in_Cross_Street,_New_Town.jpg , 1906 Federation architecture in Cross Street, New Town File:St_Johns_Anglican_New_Town.jpg, 1835 St John's Anglican Church, New Town {{Hobart suburbs Suburbs of Hobart 19th century in Tasmania Localities of City of Hobart