Hobart for kids: best things to do

What do you get when you mix nature, culture and a whole lot of fun? Here are the very best places to take the little ones for a mind-blowing adventure in the city of Hobart.

Ride to the top of kunanyi/Mount Wellington

Sharply outlined against the sky, kunanyi/Mount Wellington beckons from almost every vantage point in this waterside city – and offers the perfect opportunity to get amidst nature without going too far from town.

Book tickets on the hop-on-hop-off Explorer Bus and be regaled by the informative and funny commentary from the driver. Get off at The Springs bus stop and grab a snack at Lost Freight café, where the kids can lounge on a beanbag drinking milkshakes before lacing up their hiking boots and tackling one of the many tracks criss-crossing the sides of the mountain.

Pinnacle Road leads to a glorious lookout – but rug up: the temperature is usually 10 degrees cooler than Hobart at the summit.

Explore Salamanca Market

Every Saturday between 8.30am and 3pm the tantalising, sweet aroma of French crepes and Dutch poffertjes, mixed with the fragrant spices of samosas, burritos, noodles and kebabs, wafts through the air at Salamanca Market on the picturesque waterfront near the docks.

Musicians entertain the crowds checking out more than 300 stalls selling homemade jams, cakes and drinks, artworks, jewellery and wooden craft items – some made from Tasmania’s rare Huon pine. Kids will love running around the market where the colourful atmosphere, range of international dishes, variety of crafts and friendly, chatty stallholders will keep them entertained.

Find family-friendly art at Mona

Kids and museums are only friends for a short time but when it’s as mind-blowing as the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona), there is plenty to mesmerise everyone. The experience starts when you board the funky camouflaged ferry at the Brooke Street Pier – the little ones will love hanging from the animal sculptures and riding the sheep statues on the outside deck.

Once there, children won’t be able to resist the famous "poo machine", Wim Delvoye’s Cloaca Professional. This fascinating project imitates bodily functions in a perfect marriage of science and art – every day at 11am and 4pm the machine is fed portions of food and enzymes; digestion and then excretion occurs (at 2pm).

Other kid-friendly highlights over three levels of artworks include Richard Wilson’s oily sculpture 20:50 and Grotto by Randy Polumbo, while light shows and short films enchant children of all ages.

Get a history lesson at Port Arthur

A 90-minute drive south-east of Hobart, Port Arthur is worth the journey to visit one of the most well-preserved and significant convict-era sites in Australia. Glide around the port on a harbour cruise (included in the entry fee) while the boat’s captain tells stories about the prisoners’ escape attempts, then wander around the 19th-century prison cells and crumbling exercise yards to picture the history in action.

Imagining the intense challenges of a convict’s experience, their hands raw from manual labour, in freezing conditions, far from their homeland in what was described as a “god-forsaken” island, will give kids a history lesson that no big-city classroom can replicate.

Discover Bruny Island

Bruny Island is famous for its white wallabies and rugged beauty. It’s a 30km drive south from Hobart to Kettering, where you can catch the ferry to the island.

Climb the 279 stairs to The Neck lookout at the isthmus between North and South Bruny to take in the 360-degree views. Then be sure to stop in at the stop in at the Bruny Island Cheese Co. With kids and dogs lounging and playing beneath the trees, the area has the relaxed feel of colonial picnics in early Australian Impressionist paintings – only with more hipster clothing.

See Tassie Devils at Unzoo

The Tasmanian Devil Unzoo sanctuary has an emphasis on creating spaces for humans to observe the endangered animals in their natural habitats. There’s no better or more fun way to learn about nature and conservation than with a Devil Tracker Tour, during which guests travel by 4WD around the nearby bush areas, helping rangers examine the previous night’s devil activity via hidden infra-red cameras. The monitoring is an attempt to conserve the species, with estimates of devils in the wild remaining as low as 20,000.

Nurture in nature

Eaglehawk Neck, a tiny town that serves as a gateway to the Tasman Peninsula, is a sensational spot to see nature at its finest. Millions of years of ocean tides and wild southern winds have created Tasman Arch and the Blowhole, which spouts water up into the air in majestic sprays. There are multitudes of hiking trails dotted in and around the Tasman National Park, including very short ones that are easy for families to take on.

Another natural attraction not to be missed is Remarkable Cave, located 7.5km south of the Port Arthur Historic Site on Safety Cove Road. Descend the 115 steps to the viewing platform to see how rough seas have carved the sandstone into the shape of the map of Tasmania. It’s a popular spot for Instagrammers and surfers alike, but before you go check with Tasmania Parks and Wildlife that access has reopened after recent improvement works.

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