Day 6: Queens Domain

After breakfast, we walked to the east towards the Queen’s Domain - the site for a range of sporting venues and grounds. The origin of the name comes from the land formerly owned by the Crown (Government Domain) and the Government House is located here.

However, early colonists treated the land as public land and often called it the People’s Paddock. It was the place to put abattoirs, to quarry building materials, to agist animals, to grow food, to build and berth boats and to store munitions. Finally, in 1901, the Governor gives the Domain (except Government House) to the people of Tasmania.

The aim was to make the Domain a people’s park. To bring civilisation to the Domain. At the time the aim was to cover the Domain with parks and formal gardens such as Sydney’s Centennial Park or New York’s’ Central Park. The Domain was to become a venue for the pleasure of the people with the development of carriage drives, botanical gardens, ceremonial spaces and events spaces and facilities.

Today, the Domain is the site of the Botanical Gardens as well as a former Beaumaris Zoo.

We started by traversing past the Railway Roundabout. This curious landmark looks quite futuristic with a space age design fountain.

We then visited the University Rose Gardens, where we can see the majestic Domain House in the background. Finally, there is a beautiful pedestrian bridge here called Rose Garden Bridge.

The Hobart Zoo (also known as Beaumaris Zoo) was an old-fashioned zoological garden located in the Domain. It is most famous for being the location where footage of the last known living Tasmanian tiger or thylacine was taken in 1936. The Zoo was closed in 1937 due to severe financial problems. The site was acquired by the Royal Australian Navy and converted into a fuel storage depot for the nearby HMAS Huon shore base. The Navy used the site from 1943 until 1991, when it reverted to the Hobart City Council and was used as a storage depot. It was sold in 2019 for A$3.9m and is now a 16-room privately owned family home.