There are three menus at Evolve Spirits Bar in the MACq 01 hotel in Hobart: a drinks menu, a food menu and a "fossils menu". Choosing from the fossils menu, a visitor might opt to sit close to a triceratops horn, a prehistoric tortoiseshell, or the towering skeleton of a Siberian cave bear. Evolve is the meeting point for MACq 01's 90-minute Hidden Hobart: The Viewfinder Tour. At 10am, it's too early for a cocktail, but I find I feel strangely comfortable around the fossils: once you reach a certain age, it is a relief to learn there are older things than you in a bar.
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Each person on the tour has an old-fashioned Viewfinder toy, loaded with a reel of stereoscopic photographs of Hobart's past. As we walk the city streets from Old Wharf to New Wharf, guide Aaron Cuneo carefully positions us in front of historic sites, then refers us to the Viewfinder for an image of the same places between 35 and 150 years ago. For example, we are treated to an amusing, er, "potted" history of the IXL jam company, whose former factory looks out onto the marina, then invited to see what it looked like in the late 19th century. Incredibly, it was upside down! Then I realise I'm holding my Viewfinder the wrong way up.
Comparing today's view with the older picture turns out to be a surprisingly effective way to appreciate the passage of time. My favourite example is the Port Authority building, which was accidentally crashed into by HMAS Perth in 1986. The image of the moment of impact is priceless.
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The Queen Victoria clock tower above the Hobart GPO was built from funds raised by public subscription in 1906. As a result, the building remains part-owned by the people of Hobart. "That's why it's still a post office," says Cuneo. "Normally the government would sell it off, and it would become a luxury hotel or an H&M."
Near the GPO is a building that was once the Hobart branch of the English, Scottish & Australian Bank (ES&A). "I'm actually a bit of an ES&A bank nerd," says Cuneo, alarmingly. "I actually bought one." (Apparently, our guide is the one-time owner of the former ES&A branch in Wingham, NSW.)
Our last official stop is St Davids Park, which was once Hobart Town's cemetery. The former burial ground reopened as a public park in 1926, although most of the bodies were left in the ground. "So people having picnics here and people getting married here have ... extra guests," says Cuneo.
Tasmania's first lieutenant governor, David Collins, who died in 1810 and whom Cuneo refers to as "Dave", is among the wedding crashers. His exact whereabouts have been forgotten, but Cuneo uses his skill of locating the past in the present to solve the mystery. "I reckon he's buried here," he says, pointing to a spot of sunken ground at his feet. "I reckon I'm standing on Dave."
SNAPSHOT
What: Hidden Hobart: The Viewfinder Tour departs 10am daily from MACq 01 hotel.
How much: Free for guests of the MACq 01 hotel; $20 each for general public
Explore more: macq01.com.au
The writer was a guest of MACq 01.
