Hobart

Hobart is Tasmania's capital and Australia's second oldest city, after Sydney. Settled in 1804 beside the wide Derwent River, it has rainforest, mountain and beaches on its outskirts. Its built heritage, mostly restored, reflects a colourful colonial history founded on convicts, whalers, wealthy merchants and seamen.

Historic Franklin Wharf and Princes Wharf are each worth exploring and the Battery Point Walking Tour will tell you about the architecture. Downtown, Franklin Square leads past many fine old buildings to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Macquarie Street.

In the museum, look for the display on the Tasmanian tiger (or thylacine), a handsome, striped marsupial generally thought to have been hunted to extinction by 1936. Unconfirmed sightings persist in remote parts of Tasmania.

Tasmanian tigers are depicted on the labels of Cascade beer, one of Tasmania's top drops. The city's famous Cascade Brewery (Australia's oldest) is paralleled by the less-known - but equally interesting - Tasmania Distillery. Australia's only whisky distillery uses an Alambic Charentais pot still, dating from the 1860s.

Hobart is a place of fishing boats, fish punts at the docks, and coffee under the sun-umbrellas where the famous Salamanca Market is held every Saturday.