Baháʼí community, with a Baháʼí Centre of Learning, located within the city. In 2013, Hillsong Church established a Hillsong Connect campus in Hobart.

Economy

Shipping is significant to the city's economy. Hobart is the home port for the Antarctic activities of Australia and France. The port loads around 2,000 tonnes of Antarctic cargo a year for the Australian research vessel Nuyina[49] (previously the Aurora Australis). The city is also a popular cruise ship destination during the summer months, with 47 such ships docking during the course of the 2016–17 summer season.

The city also supports many other industries. Major local employers include catamaran builder Incat, zinc refinery Nyrstar, Cascade Brewery and Cadbury's Chocolate Factory, Norske Skog and Wrest Point Casino. The city also supports a host of light industry manufacturers, as well as a range of redevelopment projects, including the $689 million Royal Hobart Hospital Redevelopment – standing as the states largest ever Health Infrastructure project.

Tourism is a significant part of the economy, with visitors coming to the city to explore its historic inner suburbs and nationally acclaimed restaurants and cafes, as well as its vibrant music and nightlife culture. The two major draw-cards are the weekly market in Salamanca Place, and the Museum of Old and New Art. The city is also used as a base from which to explore the rest of Tasmania.

The last 15–20 years have seen Hobart's wine industry thrive as many vineyards have developed in countryside areas outside of the city in the Coal River Wine Region and D'Entrecasteaux Channel, including Moorilla Estate at Berriedale one of the most awarded vineyards in Australia.

Antarctic gateway

Hobart is an Antarctic gateway city, with geographical proximity to East Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Infrastructure is provided by the port of Hobart for scientific research and cruise ships, and Hobart International Airport supports an Antarctic Airlink to Wilkins Runway at Casey Station. Hobart is a logistics point for the French icebreaker L'Astrolabe.

Hobart is the home port for the Australian and French Antarctic programs, and provides port services for other visiting Antarctic nations and Antarctic cruise ships. Antarctic and Southern Ocean expeditions are supported by a specialist cluster offering cold climate products, services and scientific expertise. The majority of these businesses and organisations are members of the Tasmanian polar network, supported in part by the Tasmanian State Government.

Tasmania has a high concentration of Antarctic and Southern Ocean scientists. Hobart is home to the following Antarctic and Southern Ocean scientific institutions:

Australian Antarctic Division
Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR)
Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP)
The University of Tasmania (UTAS) – expertise in Antarctic and Southern Ocean science and research[53]
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) (established by UTAS)
Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS)
Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE-CRC)
International Antarctic Institute (IAI) (hosted by UTAS)
Southern Ocean Observing System (hosted by UTAS/ IMAS)
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research

Tourism

Hobart serves as a focal point and mecca for tourism in the state of Tasmania. Hobart has been a significant tourist destination for many years, however tourism has evolved to a core industry in the last decade. This process has been termed the "MONA Effect" - referring to the significant influence of the Museum of New and Old Art (MONA), the Southern Hemisphere's largest private museum, on the local tourist economy - compared to the effect of the Guggenheim on Bilbao. Since opening in 2011, MONA had received 2.5 million visitors by 2022 and has helped establish a number of art and food venues and events, including MONA FOMA, and the winter festivals of Mid-Winter Fest and Dark Mofo. 27% of visitors to Tasmania visit the museum.

In 2016, Hobart received 1.8 million visitors, surpassing both Perth and Canberra, tying equally with Brisbane. Visitor numbers reached a low of 744,200 in 2021, primarily as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic, with expectations that numbers would return to normal by 2023.

Many local tourist attractions focuses on the convict history of Hobart, the city's historic architecture, art experiences, and food and alcohol experiences. Hobart is home to a significant number of nationally known restaurants, boutique alcohol producers, including Sullivans Cove Wiskey, which won world's best single malt in 2014, boutique hotels, and art experiences. Other significant tourist attractions include Australia's second oldest botanic gardens, the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, which holds extensive significant plant collections, a range of public and private museums including the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and kunanyi/Mount Wellington, one of the dominant features of Hobart's skyline. At 1,271 metres (4,170 ft), the mountain has its own ecosystems, is rich in biodiversity and plays a large part in determining the local weather.

Architecture

Hobart is known for its well-preserved Georgian and Victorian architecture, giving the city a distinctly "Old World" feel. For locals, this became a source of discomfiture about the city's convict past, but is now a draw card for tourists. Regions within the city centre, such as Salamanca Place and Battery Point, contain many of the city's heritage-listed buildings. Historic homes and mansions also exist in the suburbs, much of the inner-city neighbourhoods are dotted with weatherboard cottages and two-storey Victorian houses. Hobart has a signfiicant body of notable buildings, including the Cascades Female Factory, one of the UNESCO Australian Convict Sites, the Hobart Synagogue, which is the oldest synagogue in Australia and a rare surviving example of an Egyptian Revival synagogue, Hadley's Orient Hotel, on Hobart's Murray Street, which is the oldest continuously operating hotel in Australia, and the Theatre Royal, the oldest continually operating theatre in Australia.

Kelly's Steps were built in 1839 by shipwright and adventurer James Kelly to provide a short-cut from Kelly Street and Arthur Circus in Battery Point to the warehouse and dockyards district of Salamanca Place. In 1835, John Lee Archer designed and oversaw the construction of the sandstone Customs House, facing Sullivans Cove. Completed in 1840, it was used as Tasmania's parliament house, and is now commemorated by a pub bearing the same name (built in 1844) which is frequented by yachtsmen after they have completed the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

Hobart is also home to many historic churches. The Scots Church (formerly known as St Andrew's) was built in Bathurst Street from 1834 to 1836, and a small sandstone building within the churchyard was used as the city's first Presbyterian Church. The Salamanca Place warehouses and the Theatre Royal were also constructed in this period. The Greek revival St George's Anglican Church in Battery Point was completed in 1838, and a classical tower, designed by James Blackburn, was added in 1847. St Joseph's was built in 1840. St David's Cathedral, Hobart's first cathedral, was consecrated in 1874.

Hobart has very few high-rise buildings in comparison to other Australian capital cities. This is partly a result of height limits imposed due to Hobart's proximity to the River Derwent and Mount Wellington.

Culture

Arts and entertainment
Hobart is home to Australia's oldest continuously operating theatre, the Theatre Royal, built in 1837. Other theatres in the city include the Playhouse theatre, the Backspace Theatre, and many smaller stage theatres.

The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra is based at the Federation Concert Hall on the city's waterfront. The Federation Concert Hall also hosts the University of Tasmania's Australian International Symphony Orchestra Institute (AISOI) which fosters advanced young musicians from across Australia and internationally.

Australia's first novel, Quintus Servinton, was published in 1831 by convict Henry Savery and published in Hobart, where he wrote the work during his imprisonment. A generally autobiographical work, it's the story of what happens to a well educated man from a relatively well to do family, who makes poor choices in life. Mary Leman Grimstone, whose book Woman's Love was written in Hobart between 1826 and 1829, holds the distinction of being the first non-biographical Australian novel. It was printed in London in 1832.

The city has also long been home to a thriving classical, jazz, folk, punk, hip-hop, electro, metal and rock music scene. Internationally recognised musicians such as metal acts Striborg and Psycroptic, indie-electro bands The Paradise Motel and The Scientists of Modern Music, singer-songwriters Sacha Lucashenko (of The Morning After Girls), Michael Noga (of The Drones), and Monique Brumby, two-thirds of indie rock band Love of Diagrams, post punk band Sea Scouts, theremin player Miles Brown, blues guitarist Phil Manning (of blues-rock band Chain), power-pop group The Innocents, and TikTok artist Kim Dracula all originated in Hobart. In addition, founding member of Violent Femmes, Brian Ritchie, now calls Hobart home, and has formed a local band, The Green Mist. Ritchie also curates the annual international arts festival MONA FOMA, held at Salamanca Place's waterfront venue, Princes Wharf, Shed No. 1. Hobart hosts many significant festivals including summer's Taste of Tasmania celebrating local produce, wine and music, Dark Mofo marking the winter solstice, Australia's premier festival celebration of voice the Festival of Voices, and Tasmania's biennial international arts festival Ten Days On The Island. Other festivals, including the Hobart Fringe Festival, Hobart Summer Festival, Southern Roots Festival, the Falls Festival in Marion Bay and the Soundscape Festival also capitalise on Hobart's artistic communities.

Hobart is home to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. The Meadowbank Estate winery and restaurant features a floor mural by Tom Samek, part funded by the Federal Government. The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) opened in 2011 to coincide with the third annual MONA FOMA festival. The multi-storey MONA gallery was built directly underneath the historic Sir Roy Grounds courtyard house, overlooking the River Derwent. This building serves as the entrance to the MONA Gallery. The Lady Franklin Gallery became Australia's first privately funded museum when established by Lady Jane Franklin in 1843. The Art Society of Tasmania has