Chapter 258: What do you think of Hobart?

Charles Darwin:

5 February 1836 arrived aboard the ship HMAS Beagle.

 

The lower parts of the hills which skirt the bay are cleared; and the bright yellow fields of corn, and dark green ones of potatoes, appear very luxuriant... I was chiefly struck with the comparative fewness of the large houses, either built or building. Hobart Town, from the census of 1835, contained 13,826 inhabitants, and the whole of Tasmania 36,505. If I was obliged to emigrate I certainly should prefer this place: the climate & aspect of the country almost alone would determine me.

 

Mark Twain:

1895: Mark Twain did a worldwide tour. He wrote a book about his tour called “Following the Equator.”

 

How beautiful is the whole region, for form, and grouping, and opulence, and freshness of foliage, and variety of colour, and grace and shapeliness of the hills, the capes, the promontories; and then, the splendour of the sunlight, the dim, rich distances, the charm of the water-glimpses! And it was in this paradise that the yellow-liveried convicts were landed, and the Corps-bandits quartered, and the wanton slaughter of the kangaroo-chasing black innocents consummated on that autumn day in May, in the brutish old time. It was all out of keeping with the place, a sort of bringing of heaven and hell together.

 

Robert Plant:

I’m able to actually choose places to go which have intrigued me for the last god knows how many years and Tasmania always been one of those places.

 

Angus Young:

We want to appeal to everyone and get rich quick. We want to be millionaires. I’ve got this plan to buy Tasmania you see.

 

Martha Stewart:

I haven’t been to Tasmania. I haven’t been to the South Pole. I haven’t been to the North Pole. I want to see the polar bear migration before there are no polar bears. I want to see Glacier national Park before the glacier melts.