Our flight from Hobart to Melbourne was timetabled at 85 minutes. In 1835 the men who founded Melbourne took weeks to cross the same strait from Tasmania, and Hobart itself had been founded by people who tried Port Phillip first. A last morning on Sullivans Cove, a flight, and an evening in streets named after Hobart men.
In ten years gold turned Melbourne from a town of 29,000 into a city of 123,000, and the city spent the money on things meant to last. Shirley's last day runs through three of them, a market, a gallery and a tower kept under glass.
Twelve places to drop into from a hotel in the middle of Melbourne, Tuesday evening to Thursday. What's open on which day, how long to allow, what it costs, and how to get there on the free trams.
Don't rush Hobart from one must-see to the next. Stay somewhere central and dip into these places whenever there's a gap, on foot or on Tasmania's fare-free buses. What's on which day, where to go in the rain, what's free and what needs booking.
Mawson sailed from here in 1911. Amundsen cabled the news of the South Pole from here in 1912. The orange icebreaker still calls Hobart home. A free day on foot in the last city before Antarctica.
Skiddaw, Table Mountain, Mount Wellington, kunanyi. Every name tells you who was looking. The mountain above Hobart has kept all four, makes the city's weather, and still starts arguments.