Tasmania, part 1: Hobart

In our first two days in Tasmania, we have taken a stroll through the centre and harbour of Hobart, visited the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, went up to the top of Mount Wellington, and visited the Royal Tasmanian Botanic Gardens.

View from Mount Wellington. This is also the first time since 2010 that my daughter has seen snow, and of course then she was less than a year old so she does not remember it. The weather was not optimal today but clear enough to have a good view.

The 'conservatory' glasshouse of the Botanic Gardens.

The lily pond of the Botanic Gardens.

This was weird. In an area labelled 'eucalyptus woodland' there were several of these sculptures consisting of soil and grass. There is a limited number of possibilities what they might be supposed to be. It could be that they are supposed to fool the visitors of the garden into thinking that they are grass trees (Xanthorrhoea), perhaps because the real thing does not survive in this climate(?). It could be that while the designers are well aware that nobody would be so stupid to mistake these as real grass trees, they are supposed to symbolize grass trees in this woodland habitat. Or they could be supposed to be art... somehow. I don't claim to understand the workings of the artistic mind.

Whatever their purpose, they remind me of that zoo in Gaza that painted stripes on donkeys because they could not get real zebras.