I was recently invited to join a gorgeous friend for an afternoon of high tea and bubbles in the Ladies Lounge at MONA, a private area of the museum in which only, and all, ladies are welcome.

Hobart is unfortunately a city that doesn’t offer many late night food options beyond fast food. After all the city restaurants have finished their dinner service, there is one place to get proper food beyond 11pm.

As pandemic-related words and phrases (flatten the curve, our new normal, double-vaxxed) have quickly become part of everyday speech over the past two years, it was inevitable that Australia’s “Word of the Year” for 2021 would reflect part of our Covid experiences.

Sam Campbell led his team to victory last year at the Tasmanian GovHack awards with their project MyBus, an app designed to improve the user experience with public buses.

Hobart Happenings March 2022

The Tasmanian Art Deco & Modernism Project is passing its 20 year milestone of record-keeping Hobart and broader Tasmanian modernist architecture. Photographer and documenter, Thomas Ryan has been looking up for a while now, and perhaps it’s time you did too.

If you’re into wine, a good wine bar is a delight. Not only a place to facilitate catch ups with friends but also a place of education and discovery.

There is a definite sense of gloom in the air when the snow starts to fall on kunanyi. The daily temps barely make it into double digits and we find ourselves opting for the couch rather than the great outdoors.

There is something otherworldly about an island brimming with wombats, a bounty of hikes and gorgeous beaches to laze on.

With the cooler weather, that soft, golden hue glazing over kunanyi in the afternoon, and the red and brown leaves falling from deciduous trees that line the streets of Hobart, there’s something special about the arrival of Autumn.

Filmmaker, journalist, television presenter and entrepreneur, Burnie-born Craig Leeson wears many hats and was recently named the Australian Tasmanian of the Year 2022. His environmental advocacy work has stretched far beyond Tasmania, but upon each return does he’s reminded just how fragile our planet is.

When New South Wales woman Jodi Wilson, her partner and their four kids decided to change everything, buy a caravan and go travelling, they changed the trajectory of their lives. Their journey eventually brought them to Tasmania, and they decided not to leave!

Readers, this month I’m going to focus on your incredible defence system and what you can do to support it.

I remember some time ago I was sitting with friends at a waterside establishment.

Hobart Happenings February 2022

Lewis Taylor is raising money for Tasmanians with cancer by attempting an incredible feat.

Ilsa Fay is the founder and director of the EROTICA Film Festival. She is a self development coach and film producer and recently shared how the two roles are very much intertwined.

The role of a Justice of the Peace (JP) has existed since 1195 when King Richard 1 created the role of “keepers of the peace”.

An entrepreneur, a law grad, a mum, an advocate for women facing human traf­ficking, Hannah Vasicek doesn’t do things in halves.

Fern Tree On Fire is a new book that looks at the impact of the 1967 bushfire on the bushy mountain suburb. It had a very timely release, with a recent fire threatening homes in Dynnyrne and Mt Nelson shortly after the anniversary of the 1967 fire that took 62 lives and made 7000 people homeless. Former Fern Tree resident Robin Hurburgh left the area after the fire, returning for the 50th anniversary and to compile the book.

Picture this. You’ve just arrived home with your newborn child – she’s beautiful, precious and your heart has grown in a way you didn’t know was possible. You’ve read many books and articles about caring for your newborn and you feel prepared. You know that babies communicate to us by crying.

Jay Patey is the man behind the moorish bread, flakey pastries and stellar sambos at Pigeon Whole Bakers.

Felicity Bott, made the move from the “republic of Western Australia” almost a decade ago, and seeks to tell the world about Hobarts culture, history and community through the art of movement, dance and performance.

At only 19 years of age, Hobart teen Kasper Hallam is rubbing shoulders in the A-League after signing with Melbourne Victory late last year.

If you’ve ever visited the South Hobart Pharmacy, chances are the friendly face behind the counter was owner and pharmacist Caleb Stuetz. While the hospital healthcare system has been the subject of our conversations of late, we chatted to one of our community’s quiet heroes regarding how his line of work has changed since the pandemic began.

After receiving a position in the leader­ship group with North Melbourne AFLW, Nicole Bresnehan is proving to be a force to be reckoned with this this season.

I am currently working as the Manager of the Grace Tame Team and am the Chief Operating Officer of the Grace Tame Foundation. My work changes quickly based on the political climate, however we mostly work to push to create struc­tural change.

Hobart Happenings January 2022

Whether gullible, sceptical or somewhere in between, reported UFO sightings have long been a fascination. The well worn cliche ‘we are not alone’ still prompts the odd mention.

Ahead of the now-unfor­tunately-cancelled Cygnet Folk Festival we spoke with musicians Five Things To Say about their musical collabora­tive efforts since their creative residency at Dreamfarm Eco-Arts retreat. Here are five things band member Elisse had to say…

Whether it’s accessing resources, locating a dad-friendly changeroom or con­necting socially, TasDads was created by co-founders and dad-ministrators, Anthony, Brennan and Sam to give expect­ing, new or seasoned dads a platform to talk about the messy and challenging journey of fatherhood. We caught up with TasDads and spoke all things parenting.

While it’s not a new space by any means (happy sixth birthday St Albi!), walking into the converted warehouse that houses St Albi, it feels vibrant and like a slice of Sydney or Melbourne turned up in a back street of Moonah.

There’s a restaurant for all scenarios. The trick is going to the right one at the right time! A few Saturday’s ago, our scenario was that our son had just won a very exciting sporting grand final.

The statistics in the Primary Health Network Needs Assessment Report (2019 – 2022) told a worrying tale. It’s noted that an estimated 15% of Tasmanian adults self-reported a mental health problem. In real terms, that is over 81,000 residents.

Every Friday (give or take a week here and there) for the past six years, a group of Tassie Nannas can be found at the Elizabeth Street Mall, knitting, selling their craft, and raising aware­ness for refugees held on Australian soil indefinitely.

Readers, if you’re feeling a bit worse for wear after the season’s festivities: tired, bloated or sluggish, how about a detox? But wait! Before you run for the hills, I’m not talking about gimmicky stints of deprivation where you exist solely on lemon water or cabbage soup or the like. This is not a smart or effective detox.

There’s a story about a group of scientists who travelled to Nepal scanning the brains of monks to better understand the secrets of the mind, equanimity, and resilience.

Pirates Bay, the great sweep of ocean east of teralina/Eaglehawk Neck, received its first European name, Monge Bay, during Baudin’s expedition, in 1802.

Tongerlongeter was an impressive Australian war hero. Leader of the Oyster Bay nation of south-east Tasmania in the 1820s and ’30s, he and his allies led one of the most effective frontier resistance mounted on Australian soil.

What were you doing when you were 14 years old? For 14 year old Eastern Shore resident Kanako Okiron, she has just released her debut novel – an exploration of life as the child of a Hollywood megastar. We caught up with Kanako recently, before she hits her own trajectory to writing stardom.

In November’s magazine we reported on the new MONA x Brighton Council x Centacare community development at Cris Fitzpatrick Park in Gagebrook. We’ve since spoken to the ever-effervescent Kirsha Kaechele, 24 Carrot Gardens project founder and leader of Mona’s community projects, about what it means for Mona’s place in the northern suburbs.

Rachael is a Guide Dog Trainer at Guide Dogs Tasmania in Hobart.

Making his rise after a year of injury and illness, Tasmanian Scott Bowden is back on his bike and has hit his stride racing around the European countryside.

Hobart Happenings December 2021

In 2018, my father purchased his first road bike for $1,500 (a hefty sum for a retiree) only to find out two months later that the bike was riddled with hidden cracks and fractures in the materi­al, known as ‘delaminations’.

The brothers behind Hughes & Hughes and Mewstone Wines, Matthew and Jonny Hughes have swung, or rather gently rolled, their giant glass doors open to the public with the recent opening of their new cellar door.

Our day begins with a circle and a small fire. The kids, aged between six weeks and five years, are decked out in bright cloth­ing, earthy knits and colourful gumboots, ready for today’s adventure, their adults in tow.

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery’s Thylacine Gallery is currently closed as the precious exhibits undergo some gentle maintenance and move into some new, state-of-the-art display cases. We caught up with Nikki King Smith, TMAG’s Senior Objects Conservator, to find out more.

My husband has a very deep love of Indian, nurtured by many trips there. His first trip was as a toddler, and I don’t doubt that one day, when borders and international borders return to a more “normal” situation, we’ll travel there as a family.

Hello readers. How are you? No, not the usual “how are you?” question that’s met with the usual “fine thanks” response. How are you really?

On 17 March 1906 Tasmania played Vic­toria in the very first interstate women’s cricket match held in Australia at Victoria Park in Abbotsford in Melbourne.

Can you get more Tassie than this? Under the namesake nickname of lead singer Jess Bicanski, newcomers Jeqa are writing dreamy songs in an old apple shed in the Huon and gracing Tassie stages with self-composed tunes. A short 10 months ago, Jess, Taylor Lewincamp, Ethan MacGregor, Sam Watson, and Theo Idstrom were strangers and now they have a music filled summer ahead and plenty of exciting things in the works.

Magali Wright leads a team of dedicated volunteers in saving the waterways of the Tyenna River and Derwent Estuary from an introduced species, the willow tree.

Sophia Bender is a Tasmanian filmmaker and recently released a short film, Endo Girl, about living with endometriosis.

With a demanding day job, Andrew Goyen has created a new approach for people to exercise and connect after work.

Like our nanna’s, Kirsten Grant believes crafty keeps minds agile and active.

Get the lowdown on what’s happening in the Hobart community in November.

“kunanyi / Mount Wellington”. For most Hobartians, this dual place name is in common parlance and rolls off the tongue in such an easy and familiar way that it seems almost surprising to remind ourselves that it was officially gazetted as an Aboriginal dual place name by the Tasmanian government only in 2014.

If you’re consuming Australian and Tasmanian media, it may feel like there are more and more significant road traumas being reported where illegal drugs, such as ice, feature heavily. Here in Tassie alone we’ve seen some horror crashes reported recently.

Lasagna Love started at the beginning of the pandemic by a mum (Rhiannon) in the USA. She began making meals and delivering them to community members who were struggling with the challenges the pandemic bought. This inspired her friends and other community members to do the same and the movement spread from there. Now Hobart woman Stacy Klousia has brought the concept to Australia and is sharing the love locally, while expanding across Australia.

I’ve driven past Rin so many times. Like The Drunken Admiral, I’d always wondered what it was like. In the spirit of ticking places off the list, we booked a table on a rainy Friday night to find out.

What’s your skin issue? Dryness? Dullness? Ageing? Let’s talk skin secrets. No, not swish beauty products that promise the world and empty the wallet, but the real inside story on gorgeous skin that glows with health.

Being heavily pregnant with my belly in full bloom, I’m often asked, “So, have you got everything ready?”

Have you noticed how many houses in Hobart have a name? After realising just how many there were, I decided to write a book about them called 4 Winds to Zannee. My previous four books dealt with the naming of things in the Blue Mountains of NSW.

I’m one of Tassie’s newest beekeepers – having recently taken responsibility for a hive on our suburban Hobart block.

Libby laughs when she says that Sundays are generally a write-off for her.

Based in Hobart for part of the year, author and adventurer Robyn Mundy lives a fascinating life of travel and exploration. Her new novel walks in the footsteps of Wanny Woldstad, a trapper and hunter from the early 1900’s.

I run a small bookbinding studio in central Hobart, specialising in hand-bound journals and marbled paper. Sustainability is important to me, so I source my materials locally or from other small-scale producers and busi­nesses. Where possible I use recycled materials, whilst keeping to archival quality.

Chef Matt Breen has weathered the Covid storm and is now looking at his next phase as fatherhood approaches.

Tasmania has the lowest literacy rate in Australia, which presents a range of social issues. Emma Sells is an accountant in Hobart and volunteers with Connect 42, an organisation helping to increase literacy levels among Tasmania’s prison population and disadvantaged communities. She’s the treasurer on the board, as well as an active volunteer in our prisons.

Not long after arriving in Hobart I founded a children’s charity called Tassie Mums. I wanted to continue volunteering as I had done with Melbourne charity St Kilda Mums however I couldn’t find anything like the service Tassie Mums provides today and so with plastic tubs stacked in the garage and bundling on my dinning room table Tassie Mums began. My incredibly generous friend and Tassie Mums amazing Operations Manager, Madeleine has been with me on this journey from the start and I couldn’t do it without her.

I am a youth worker and have run youth programs for nearly 20 years. Out of that experience I’ve founded the Tasmanian Bike Collective which uses bikes as the medium to connect, mentor and develop work skills with at risk young people.

Get the lowdown on what’s happening in the Hobart community in October.

The We ARE Enough Art Project is centred on telling women’s stories.

The last time we spoke with Mike Noga he told us he was putting the finishing touches to the follow up to his 2016 album King. On Friday 8 October, Part Time Records will release this album, Mike’s fourth, Open Fire. Sadly Mike passed away on 26 August 2020. His death was accidental and attributed to a rare condition which caused a cerebral haemorrhage, a condition exacerbated by bouts of heavy drinking. Mike had a life­long struggle with anxiety and depression which became particularly difficult in the last three years of his life. His family are incredibly proud of Open Fire, which was recorded in August 2019 in Duluth, Minnesota. Mike’s sister Ali Noga shared, “The album was pretty much completed when Mike passed and there was no doubt that it needed to be released in order to honour Mike. I may be biased but I really do think it’s his best work yet.” Here, Ali has shared more about the album and Mike’s work.

The inquisitive noses of Biosecurity Tasmania’s (BT) detector dogs at Tasmania’s airports and seaports continue to sniff out restricted goods hidden away in luggage, despite the reduced number of incoming flights in recent times.

Many women think of a glass of wine at the end of a stressful day as self-care – but it isn’t. Drinking alcohol puts us in a cycle of trying to take the edge off stress, while negatively impacting our anxiety and mood.

The adrenaline is flowing, you’re feeling way too busy to sit down and eat lunch and you might not even feel thirsty or hungry. Or you might raid the office lolly jar or a pack of bikkies in your close vicinity for a quick sugar hit on the go.

“Good Morning, My name is Dr Smith. I am here to tell you that you have stage two breast cancer”… And here begins a story of adventure.

In 1962, archaeologists removed slabs of rock featuring ancient Aboriginal petroglyphs from Preminghana, on the north west coast, and took them to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. The enormous cultural artefacts were finally due to be returned to Country in March this year, but they’re still not home, nor are countless other examples of Aboriginal cultural material and, sadly, many Ancestors’ remains.

Ah Spring – the season of new begin­nings. Flowers blooming, lighter days, and a general sense that the earth is coming alive again. A time when we feel energised and motivated to clear out the cobwebs and commence new projects. But often, we overlook the most important spring clean – our mindset.

The first time I saw a white tailed spider I was in my late twenties living in Melbourne, I thought they looked mean. How was I to know their bites caused necrotic ulcers?

A morning tea was held at Government House earlier this year to acknowledge a significant collection of artefacts belonging to Major General Sir John Gellibrand KCB, DSO & Bar. Hosted by Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Kate Warner, AC, (now ex) Governor of Tasmania, the collection was donated to Hobart Legacy by Margaret U Brown OAM. Mrs Brown, the widow of John Gellibrand, grandson of Sir John Gelli­brand, expressed her delight at being host­ed by the Governor and on the collection coming to Hobart Legacy.

With close to 1000 visitors of all ages, the public enthusiasm was encouraging when the Tasmanian Transport Museum (TTMS) hosted two special gala days to celebrate 150 years of main­line rail transport in Tasmania at their Glenorchy museum in September.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently presented us with a code red for humanity. It plunged some into a paralysed state of despair, whilst pushing others to action.

“Yup, that’s all of it”, the woman standing in front of me says as she drops her two overflowing bags, clearly having stuffed them hurriedly. She has just managed to flee from her wealthy, controlling husband of eight years, who earnt the majority of the household income. She cared for his children and has “nothing to show for her efforts” until matters are finalised in slow and arduous court proceedings.

Everyone loves ducks, but how many people know what a “duck” actually is? In Tasmania, we have 11 species of native ducks, either full time residents or occasional visitors. Sadly for our ducks, they’re not as famous as a lot of our other native birds. A recent Victorian study found that only 1 in 6 Victorians can name a single native duck species, and Tasmanians, I imagine ,wouldn’t fare much better. The image of a local duck that you have in your head right now might not even be an Australian duck!

Deon Kenzie recently smashed out his event in the Tokyo Paralympics, as one of three Tasmanian competitors.

Argyle Street isn’t somewhere that you’d immediately think of heading for dinner, but with the new Deep South Brewing Co (220 Argyle Street, North Hobart) venue opening for dining, it’s suddenly a destination.

We live in a world where everything is so messed up and upside down, sometimes I wonder how we get through each day.

The adrenaline is flowing, you’re feeling way too busy to sit down and eat lunch and you might not even feel thirsty or hungry. Or you might raid the office lolly jar or a pack of bikkies in your close vicinity for a quick sugar hit on the go.

There was a time when apple trucks lined the streets of Hobart, waiting to unload the wooden boxes with their brightly coloured labels at Constitution Dock.

Get the lowdown on what’s happening in the Hobart community in September.

Did you know that one of Australia’s most sought after cricket statisticians lives here in Hobart? This summer, listen for the voice of Ric Finlay over the airwaves, contributing facts and stats he’s gathered since the 1980s, stored in the database he built. He has also amassed an extensive collection of cricket books and almanacs, including not one but two full collections of Wisden Cricket Almanacs, dating back to 1864.

Our geography seeps into our being. It can take grit to withstand chilling winters and stinging rain, isolated (even more so now) from some things that people interstate and overseas may take for granted. But people from Hobart have a certain way about them that can be both grounded and in flight at the same time.

Executive Producer Belinda Kelly is making sure a new generation of Tasmanians continue to enjoy puppetry.

Will Parsell is from a musical family in Hobart and trained at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music. Will is one of the primary musicians at Inscape Tasmania, a program that offers music and art to patients in a hospital setting.

The Give Back program – how two Hobart teens are challenging stereotypes and leading the way.

Gemma Lynch-Memory has just opened her 33rd solo art exhibition, as well as a brand new gallery space as a joint venture with her husband Terry Memory with whom she has six kids.

What do you get when you combine a Hobart librarian, an illegal sex videogame and literacy project? Ruairi Murphy explains his new book, which does more than tell a cool story, it helps those struggling with literacy.