Hobart, Australia: Where a Gambler's Art Museum, Naked Swimmers and a Billion-Dollar Stadium Walk Into a Harbour

Welcome to Hobart, Tasmania, the southernmost capital city in Australia and proof that if you isolate a population on a cold island long enough, they will eventually build a world-class art scene out of spite. We recently watched RoastMyTown.com take a flamethrower to this place. We're here to add some travel-guide context, and a few more matches.

Hobart's Culture: One Gambler, One Museum, One Very Famous Poo Machine

Every tourist guide to Hobart eventually gets to MONA, the Museum of Old and New Art, and so will this one. It's the gambler's vanity project the roasters were talking about, and it has done more for Tasmanian tourism than any brochure ever managed. David Walsh made his fortune betting on blackjack and other games, then built a cathedral to the macabre on the Derwent. Locals defend him like a folk hero, and honestly, it's hard to argue when his museum turned a sleepy port town into a bucket-list destination.

The numbers back the hype. The festival MONA runs, Dark Mofo, draws hundreds of thousands of visits across its various locations. For a city this size, that's an astonishing amount of people queuing in the cold to be mildly disturbed.

If you want a gentler dose of culture, Salamanca Place has sandstone warehouses from the whaling era, a Saturday market, and enough artisan fudge to sink the Tasmanian Devil. Battery Point's colonial lanes are pretty enough to make you forget you're in a place that was once a penal colony.

Dark Mofo and the Nude Solstice Swim: Is This Normal? (No.)

For decades the mainland mocked Tasmania with tired two-headed jokes. Hobart's response was to host a winter festival of fire, ritual, and dread, then invite thousands of people to strip off and run into a freezing river at sunrise. That's not shaking a stereotype, it's lapping it.

The swim happens at dawn on the winter solstice, in the dead of a Tasmanian winter. Hundreds of people shed their clothes and dash into the River Derwent at Long Beach, which is a good deal more than the roast's 1,700.

The history is a little rich, too. When the nude swim was first proposed in 2013, Tasmania Police indicated participants could face indecency charges. Today it's a beloved ritual. Some participants say they have done the swim every year. They have outlasted the police opposition and apparently the cold itself.

The $1.13 Billion Stadium for a Team That Hasn't Played Yet

Now to the sports section, where optimism meets a spreadsheet. Hobart is building a stadium at Macquarie Point, and the price has climbed accordingly. The stadium's projected cost has ballooned well beyond its initial estimates in 2022 to a current price tag of about $1.13 billion. It's a 23,000-seat roofed venue on the waterfront, and the AFL made it a condition of the Tasmania Devils joining the league.

The roast says the Devils play their first real game in 2028, which is true of the club's debut. The stadium is another matter. Tasmania's future AFL club believed they would be playing in their new $1.13-billion stadium from 2030, but it's now clear their debut there will be at least one year later. So the team debuts in 2028 somewhere else, and moves in later.

As of this month, the bill is still not settled. In mid-October, the head of the government body tasked with delivering a new stadium in Hobart acknowledged that "cost pressures" could impact the final price tag. If you're a Hobartian who has argued about a pothole since 2019, you're allowed to feel a little seen.

Geography: Small City, Big Mountain, Deep Harbour

Hobart has about 40 percent of Tasmania's population and is still the least-populated Australian state capital, which is a bit like being the tallest kid in a daycare. But the setting is spectacular. The city sits at the foot of kunanyi / Mount Wellington, which rises 1,271 metres (4,170 ft) above sea level, and the harbour is a deep natural port.

Drive to the summit on a clear day and you'll see the whole Derwent estuary and the Tasman Peninsula beyond. Drive up on a bad day and you'll see fog, wind, and possibly snow in January. The mild maritime climate is a lie told by the lower slopes.

So, Should You Visit Hobart?

Absolutely. Hobart is a deep-water harbour city with colonial sandstone, one of Australia's best food and whisky scenes, and a mountain you can see from your breakfast. It has a billionaire's playground for a cultural centrepiece, a festival where strangers get naked in the name of art, and a stadium whose price tag keeps climbing. The mainland may think it's small and cold, and it is. It's also far more interesting than it has any right to be.

Think we were too nice? See the full roast on RoastMyTown.com.