A Walk in Old Hobart book cover

I bought this highly recommended book to old Hobart about 2 weeks ago but hadn’t gotten round to actually reading it properly yet. At that time I was still too busy training for my new position as ghost tour guide.

Titled ‘A Walk in Old Hobart: Your official guide to 2 wondrous hours with Charles Wooley & Michael Tatlow’, this book is a self-guided tour through some of the oldest parts of Hobart, starting at the now buried Hunter Island, through the first wharves in front of Hobart, to the warehouses at Salamanca Place, once called the New Wharf & finally into a small section of Battery Point before looping back again.

It comes with a specially commissioned map that marks the route out with little numbers along the way. Each number has a corresponding little blurb in the book, where the authors often give a brief history of the location & some anecdotal stories as well. Some old historic photos taken from the 1800s & early 1900s are included as well, which is a real treat for me, because I love to compare the new & the old visually.

David came home early today & we grabbed that little bit extra time to drive down to Hunter Street, where the self-guided tour starts. It was already pretty late by the time we got there, so we knew we probably couldn’t do much of the route but we just wanted to make a start anyway.

We managed to wander from Hunter Street, past Victoria Dock & Constitution Dock to the Watermans Dock before our growling stomachs forced us to turn back. As we were walking & juggling book, map & cameras in hand, my mind was busily ticking away as to how I can incorporate my own experience from doing this self-guided tour into this blog without going over the same ground already covered by the authors & end up plagiarizing the book unintentionally.

I decided that I will not cover the entire route on the blog. I will only pick out several locations that really jump out at me & focus on those first. I will also see what other material I can add on to complement what was already covered in the book.

I will be making frequent trips back & forth along this route in the coming weeks & I aim to take lots of photos to illustrate my posts too! Stay tuned.

In the meantime, if you are interested to get a copy of ‘A Walk in Old Hobart’ for yourself, you can order online here at the Walk Guides Australia site. Cost is AUD$18.00 per book plus AUD$6.00 postage & packing. PayPal is accepted. There is also a downloadable audio narration by Charles Wooley for AUD$16.00. I haven’t gotten one for myself yet, so I can’t say if it’s just a narration of the book or additional material to accompany the book.