Hobart is the capital city and chief port of Tasmania, Australia. Located in the southeastern corner of the state on the west bank of the Derwent River estuary (3 km wide), the city ranges along steep foothills with Mount Wellington (1,270 m), often snow-covered, in the near background. Hobart is Australia's most southerly city. The British navigator George Bass explored the estuary in 1798 and was much impressed with the setting. Five years later, Philip Gidley King, governor of New South Wales, in an attempt to prevent French incursions into districts not yet under direct British control, dispatched a lieutenant to establish a settlement at Risdon Cove on the Derwent. It was named Hobart Town after Robert Hobart, 4th earl of Buckinghamshire, then secretary of state for the colonies. In 1804 the settlement was moved to the city's present site, Sullivan Cove. By the mid-19th century the community had become a major port for ships whaling in the southern oceans, but its development was being arrested by the limited resources that the Tasmanian island offered in comparison to the mainland. It was gazetted a city in 1842 and a municipality in 1852. The municipality became part of the city in 1857.
Hobart has an excellent deepwater port unhampered by tidal changes; this, coupled with rail lines (freight only) to the north and northwest, the junction of the Channel, Midland, Huon, and Tasman highways, and an airport, makes it a focus of communications and trade. Local industries include an electrolytic zinc refinery at Risdon, a calcium-carbide plant at Electrona, copper and newsprint mills, and textile, confectionery, tool, furniture, fruit-processing, motor-body, and paint plants.
The city has Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals and the first Jewish synagogue in Australia (1843-1845). It is the site of the University of Tasmania (1890), several other colleges, Parliament House (1834), and the state library, museum, and art gallery. Nearby recreation areas include Wrest Point Casino (the first legal casino in Australia), Mount Wellington, the Nelson Range, and the beach resort of Bellerive. Suburbs have spread up the west shore of the estuary and also to the east shore, to which the city is linked by the Tasman Bridge (1965) and the Bowen Bridge (1984). Pop. (1991 prelim.) 181,838.