Tas That Was – The Exhibition Building in Hobart

Exhibitions were a way for countries to show off their cultural heritage and industrial developments.

Launceston held an exhibition in 1891 at the Albert Hall. It made a profit, so Hobart chose to hold an exhibition of its own.

Construction of the Exhibition Building began in March 1893. Proper foundations were not laid because it was decided that it should be temporary.

Three-hundred-and-four kilometres of hardwood was used to build it. The exterior was made out of plaster and concrete, which made it look elegant.

The main building – which contained a concert hall that could hold three thousand people – was finished by September 1894. Annexes were then constructed.

The exhibition began in 1894. Goods and artwork from Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, Britain, and several other places around the world were displayed. Musical concerts and recitals were also performed.

Once the exhibition finished in 1895, a proposal was put forward to dismantle the Exhibition Building and rebuild it in India “for a similar purpose”. This was rejected. Instead, the building was pulled down and its furnishings were sold to the Brisbane Exhibition and to Mathinna, a town located east of Launceston.

The Exhibition Building took up most of the area where Cenotaph now stands.

Bibliography

• ‘Hobart’s International Exhibition of 1894 was a global drawcard but was never built to last’ (ABC Radio Hobart).
• The Brisbane Courier, Friday 5 April 1895, page 5.
• Forbes, Anne-Marie (year unknown), ‘Music at an Exhibition: A Case Study of the Tasmanian International Exhibition, 1894-1895’, Journal of Music Research, pp. 57-64.

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Tas That Was is a column that includes:

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