New Town | |||||||||||||
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 New Town viewed from Lost World to the west. New Town Bay is on the left and Cornelian Bay is on the right behind the suburb. | |||||||||||||
  New Town | |||||||||||||
 Interactive map of New Town | |||||||||||||
| Coordinates:42°51′34″S147°18′20″E / 42.85944°S 147.30556°E /-42.85944; 147.30556 | |||||||||||||
| Country | Australia | ||||||||||||
| State | Tasmania | ||||||||||||
| City | Hobart | ||||||||||||
| LGA | |||||||||||||
| Government | |||||||||||||
| • State electorate | |||||||||||||
| • Federal division | |||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
| • Total | 6,781 (SAL2021)[2] | ||||||||||||
| Postcode | 7008 | ||||||||||||
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New Town is a suburb of the city ofHobart,Tasmania,Australia, about 4 kilometres (2 mi) north of the central business district of Hobart. It is generally considered Hobart's oldest suburb, settled just a week afterSullivans Cove.[3] It was historically the home of many of Hobart's wealthiest citizens, and New Town features a large number of grand residences, churches, and public buildings. The large farms were broken up following the world wars and it is now an inner city residential suburb.[3] Many of its streets are lined withFederation style cottages. It is surrounded by the suburbs ofNorth Hobart,Mount Stuart,Lenah Valley andMoonah, with theQueen's Domain just to the south-east. Most of the locality is within theHobart local government area, with 2.5% withinGlenorchy.
At the time of Hobart's re-settlement on the western shore of theDerwent River in 1804, the first free settlers were landed at New Town Bay a day after the military and convict landing on Hunter Island on 20/21 February. Some early buildings remain including Pitt Farm which is the second oldest farmhouse in Australia.
St John's Anglican Church in New Town has an unbroken record of use as a parish church, from the first service on 20 December 1835 up to the present. The building was designed by the Tasmanian government civil engineer and architect, John Lee Archer.
New Town Post Office opened on 1 January 1842.[4]
Video City opened the largestvideo rental shop in Australia on New Town Road in 2002.[5] The store remained a vibrant cultural institution long after the arrival of online streaming services in the 2010s. After selling its catalogue of over 30,000 video titles, the store ceased trading in 2019.[6]
New Town had the only two single-sex public schools in Tasmania -Ogilvie High School[7] for girls, andNew Town High School[8] for boys (Now combined to make "Hobart City Highschool"). There is also a third main school in New Town, theCatholic Sacred Heart College, New Town Campus, with over 1000 students.[9] New Town Primary School is over a hundred years old.[10] The major shopping centre isCentro New Town Plaza, which houses aKmart, aColes Supermarket and several smaller specialty shops.
New Town is well known for its leafy streets flanked byColonial,Georgian,Federation,Italianate andArt Deco residences, with many large homes and mansions scattered throughout the suburb.[11][better source needed] Architects who have worked on New Town homes include Thomas Reibey Atkinson,[12] grandson ofMary Reibey, andHenry Hunter, one of Hobart's most prominent early colonial architects.
The InterCity Cycleway passes directly through the suburb, on its course fromClaremont to the city.
The main road in New Town is known as "New Town Road" and follows on fromElizabeth Street in Hobart. The road connects Hobart with the neighbouring city ofGlenorchy. Other main roads in New Town are Augusta Road, which leads intoLenah Valley, and Giblin Street which becomes Forster Street and then becomes Risdon Road as it continues down towards theBrooker Highway.
