Taroona

Living history is seldom out of sight or mind on your Tasmanian odyssey - even in suburban Hobart. The southern suburb of Taroona, for example, holds stewardship over the imposing, convict built shot tower. A climb to the 48m top of the tower is rewarded with matchless views of the Derwent estuary. The tower infrastructure also includes a small museum and cafe housed on a building that dates back to 1855 and a cottage built in the 1830s. Taroona lies just to the south of Sandy Bay which boasts the University of Tasmania campus, a model Tudor village and Australia's first legal casino at Wrest Point. The model village is extraordinary for its creators' attention to fine detail, especially in the period costume worn by the 5cm tall inhabitants. The nearby Truganini Reserve, which was named after the last full-blooded Tasmanian Aboriginal to survive the near-genocidal techniques used by so many of the white settlers in their relationships with the native population.