Tasmania Travelers Recommend

You won’t find a more charming urban enclave than lovely Battery Point, perched above the Salamanca Place warehouses and Sullivans Cove. The tiny streets are lined with gorgeous early-19th-century cottages, each boasting pristine flower beds and more than likely a resident tabby cat sunning itself on the brick wall, waiting for a pat. To get to Battery Point from Salamanca Place, follow the time-worn Kellys Steps. You’ll also get a rich sense of the colonial past at the Penitentiary Chapel site, especially if you take an atmospheric evening ghost tour. To get to grips with Hobart’s history, dive into the Maritime Museum of Tasmania and its collection of seafaring memorabilia. Aboriginal art and colonial relics are displayed at the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, and the role of the army in colonial times is explored at the Military Museum. There’s more colonial history at Narryna Heritage Museum, giving you the chance to explore an 1836 Georgian mansion.

New South Wales contains four convict sites. Cockatoo Island, set in Sydney Harbour, was used for dry dock building between 1839-69; the island was the site of one of Australia’s largest shipyards from 1870 to 1991, and is now a cultural heritage center offering public tours. The Great North Road, which links Sydney to the northern agricultural center of the Hunter Valley, was built by convict labor from 1825-36. Designed between 1818-19 by architect Francis Greenway, himself a former convict, Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney was used until 1848 as a home for convict men and boys employed by the Australian government; it is now open to the public. The oldest public building in Sydney (and actually set in the riverside suburb of Paramatta), the colonial-style Old Government House – the official residence of 10 early governors of New South Wales -- was built between 1815-22 using convict labour.