Hobart

Hobart is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony, Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney, New South Wales. The city is located in the state's south-east on the estuary of the Derwent River, making it the most southern of Australia's capital cities and its harbour forms the second-deepest natural port in the world. 

In June 2013, the city had a greater area population of approximately 217,973. Its skyline is dominated by the 1,271-metre (4,170 ft) Mount Wellington, and much of the city's waterfront consists of reclaimed land. It is the financial and administrative heart of Tasmania, serving as the home port for both Australian and French Antarctic operations and acting as a major tourist hub, with over 1.192 million visitors in 2011/2012. The metropolitan area is often referred to as Greater Hobart, to differentiate it from the City of Hobart, one of the five local government areas that cover the city. 

The first settlement began in 1803 as a penal colony at Risdon Cove on the eastern shores of the Derwent River, amid British concerns over the presence of French explorers. In 1804 it was moved to a better location at the present site of Hobart at Sullivans Cove. The city, initially known as Hobart Town or Hobarton, was named after Lord Hobart, the Colonial Secretary. 

The area's indigenous inhabitants were members of the semi-nomadic Mouheneener tribe. Violent conflict with the European settlers, and the effects of diseases brought by them, dramatically reduced the aboriginal population, which was rapidly replaced by free settlers and the convict population. Charles Darwin visited Hobart Town in February 1836 as part of the Beagle expedition. He writes of Hobart and the Derwent estuary in his Voyage of the 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. 

The Derwent River was one of Australia's finest deepwater ports and was the centre of the Southern Ocean whaling and the sealing trade. The settlement rapidly grew into a major port, with allied industries such as shipbuilding. 

Hobart Town became a city on 21 August 1842, and was renamed Hobart from the beginning of 1881. 

Hobart is located on the estuary of the Derwent River in the state's south-east. Geologically Hobart is built predominantly on Jurassic dolerite around the foothills interspersed with smaller areas of Triassic siltstone and Permian mudstone. Hobart extends along both sides of the Derwent River; on the western shore from the Derwent valley in the north through the flatter areas of Glenorchy which rests on older Triassic sediment and into the hilly areas of New Town, Lenah Valley. Both of these areas rest on the younger Jurassic dolerite deposits, before stretching into the lower areas such as the beaches of Sandy Bay in the south, in the Derwent estuary. South of the Derwent estuary lies Storm Bay and the Tasman Peninsula. 

The Eastern Shore also extends from the Derwent valley area in a southerly direction hugging the Meehan Range in the east before sprawling into flatter land in suburbs such as Bellerive. These flatter areas of the eastern shore rest on far younger deposits from the Quaternary. From there the city extends in an easterly direction through the Meehan Range into the hilly areas of Rokeby and Oakdowns, before reaching into the tidal flatland area of Lauderdale. 

Hobart has access to a number of beach areas including those in the Derwent estuary itself; Sandy Bay, Cornelian Bay, Nutgrove, Kingston, Bellerive, and Howrah Beaches as well as many more in Frederick Henry Bay such as; Seven Mile, Roaches, Cremorne, Clifton, and Goats Beaches.