Cheers.

Up in my Hobart 'hood, on a still day you can smell the cloyingly heavy yeasty pong of barley and hops being turned into beer at nearby the Cascade Brewery:

Which is funny really, as the Governor, after whom my street was named, has gone down in the annals of Tasmanian history as nothing more than a drunken profligate. He may have been the son of of a woman called Temperance, yet he exhibited anything but, and is famous to this day for having invented a celebrated punch concoction called the 'Blow My Skull'.....a potent combination of rum, brandy, citrus, sugar, water and BEER. Luckily, 'The governor having an impenetrable cranium, and an iron frame could take several goblets of the alcoholic fluid, and walk away as lithe and happy as possible'. In a colony awash with booze, he spent a lot of his time drunk.

Some fifty years later, Henry Jones did not. He was a very strict teetotaller. He was also a local boy made good. Famous for starting work at age 12 in the Jam Factory down on the Hobart waterfront pasting labels on tins, he went on to own the company and became the first Tasmanian knighted.

Sir Henry Jones was a local entrepreneur with international interests - he had a finger in what seemed like every pie and created his enormous success through not only jam but also tin mining, fruit growing and shipping.  His personal motto was 'I excel in everything I do'. And he did. Our house was built for one of his nine daughters (he also had three sons) on the occasion of her marriage. He then built the two houses next door for other daughters.....one of which later became the childhood home of the errant, notorious, womanising cad, Errol Flynn.

These days the local Hobart boy made good that everybody is talking about is David Walsh. He with the deep, deep pockets....deep enough to have created MONA.....a personal museum, a monument to himself. All financed by his intricate gambling systems. It's been described as 'a subversive Disneyland for adults' and it really is extraordinary. It has changed the whole dynamic of Hobart tourism, suddenly punters aren't so interested in wading through the grim convict ruins of the past but rather are coming down by the plane load to marvel, star struck, at the heavily sex and death oriented exhibits in David's museum.

But destination MONA is not just about the art, they also grow and make Morilla wine and Moo Brew beer.....if you find yourself entering the parallel universe of a MONA event (Dark MOFO is next on the calendar in June, quick get your tickets) and drinking David's grog you will no doubt giggle that the plastic glasses in which they serve the beer are emblazoned with the logo 'Not suitable for Bogans'. Yes, really.

And then of course there's the local girl made good. Mary Donaldson, who met her future husband in a Sydney pub and went on to become a.....Crown Princess. I must admit to feeling somewhat ripped off as I too met the bloke I would ultimately marry in a pub....which resulted in my move from the big smoke of Sydney.....to Hobart. Last time Crown Princess Mary came back for a visit to her childhood home of Hobart, she embraced being a.....housewife.....by renting a home in the Hobart 'burbs and driving her family around in a family wagon. I suppose that Marie Antoinette, Queen of France used to play at being a milkmaid.

Anyway, why wouldn't you want to be a Hobart housewife? Although I'm afraid that I'm taking a mini break and moving my particular brand of domesticity off shore for the next three and a half months. See you when we get to France!

Rx

Giveaway.

So this is a no holds barred, shameless attempt to lure more followers to subscribe to my blog. Wouldn't you love to flick through this beautiful coffee table book about some of Tasmania's gorgeous old homes:

My house isn't in this book, yet my friend Janey's is:

.....you can read all about how she chose her curtains. Old houses are something we have in abundance in Hobart. And compared to other capital cities in Australia, they cost less. If you don't believe me, click here and see for yourself.

But wait there's more. A jar of cumquat compote made by me with fruit from my own tree:

You could eat it with vanilla bean ice cream or on a fruit platter. To win the book and the compote all you have to do is become a follower. Please. Once you become a follower you are automatically in the draw. I will choose the lucky winner randomly at the end of the month.

I am a creature of habit. Thursday is Bikram Yoga, a trip to Gowans Auctions, lunch, school pick up, ensuing chaos. If you are unfamiliar with my routine, read all about a Thursday in January here. Today, I was reflecting on life in Hobart. The capital of this funny little state of Tasmania which has a population of just over 500,000. Curious things do happen here, in Hobart, every now and again. Out at Gowans rifling through the usual hotchpotch of stuff, I saw the sign for the Hamilton Inn Couch that they have on proud display in the corridor leading to where you register to bid:

Before I regale you with this fantastic tale of auction going riches beyond anyone's wildest imaginings, I must just give you an honest visual of what it's like at Gowans:

It may be an Aladdin's Cave of treasure but you really do have to sift through the crap.....and don't be deceived, it could NEVER be described as glamorous.

In 2005, an unrestored colonial red cedar couch, which had been stored in a shed, came up for auction......because the owner wanted to raise enough money for a fence:

Initially, this dishevelled piece of furniture was knocked down for $48,000. Then someone complained so bidding started again. It eventually finished at $310,800. One of the highest prices ever paid for a piece of Australian furniture. It dates from 1820 and the value was in the fact that over it's 190 year history, it had never been tinkered with. Apparently the owners kept bits that had broken off in a box with a view to restoring it in the future. Luckily they didn't. The Hamilton Inn Couch is Hobart's version of a Vermeer in the attic.

Like most of the fabulous art to come to Hobart in recent times, the Hamilton Inn Couch was paid for predominantly with gambling money. The Federal Group (which own Tasmania's two casinos as well as the license to operate all poker machines in Tasmania) purchased it and donated it to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. The other fabulous art in Hobart funded by gambling is David Walsh's Museum of Old and New Art, MONA. Funded in it's entirety by the spoils of gambling, which used to be tax free. Now the ATO are after David Walsh to pay a tax debt of $37 million. Was I suggesting that Hobart is dull?

R