Hobart

Hobart (population 225,000) was founded in 1803, also as a penal colony. It’s Australia’s second-oldest capital city after Sydney.

It has the most complete infrastructure of any gateway city, hosting the largest critical mass of Antarctic scientists and scholars anywhere in the world with world-class research and education institutions. This is the result of a decision made in 1981 to move the Australian Antarctic Program to Hobart from Canberra, which in hindsight marked an economic and cultural turning point for both the city and the state of Tasmania.

In the early 1990s, the local government created the Tasmanian Polar Network, which represents the considerable Antarctic and Southern Ocean business and science sector. Hobart’s claim to its gateway status is logistical, economic and scientific (primarily for the French and Chinese Antarctic programmes).