Hobart: Some Say It's The Best Shop In Tasmania

Hobart: Some Say It’s The Best Shop In Tasmania

Jessica Adams

"This is the old Tasmania, on proud display. It hails from the days when every housewife had The Australian Women's Weekly on the armchair and a copy of a CWA Cookbook in her kitchen."

Hobart is so small that you can happily walk around it and think you’ve ‘done’ the shops – most of which are in or around the Elizabeth Street Mall. Walk a little further, from the far end of the Mall (opposite the Commonwealth Bank) and you’ll be on the road to local knitwear heaven. Not only you can take home a tea-cosy with chunky strawberries on top – you can take home a tea-cosy which looks like a fox.

THE CWA SHOP – THE COUNTRYWOMEN’S ASSOCIATION

Tucked away at the end of the Mall, you will find the CWA Shop of Hobart at 165 Elizabeth Street. You can’t really miss it, on account of the tea-cosies – but also the unbelievable spread of passionfruit slices, feather-light sponge cakes and native flowers cut from the garden, for sale in home-grown bouquets – always in plastic buckets near the front door. This is shopping but not as London, Paris or New York know it. This is Tasmanian shopping, as the Tasmanian CWA website shows. Tomato Relish!

KNITWEAR FOR THE BABIES AND TODDLERS IN YOUR WORLD

The amazing selection of knitwear for the babies and toddlers in your world ranges from small white booties with tiny ducks on the straps, to chunky, rugged cardigans with penguins across the front. The imagination of the CWA knitters is only reined in by the wool they choose. Prices are affordable, sometimes crazy-cheap, given the craft and skill used – and the fact that you are taking home a designer item which is genuinely one-of-a-kind. The stuffed toys are also beautiful. Bananas in Pyjamas, anyone?

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT THE TASMANIAN CWA SHOP

This is the old Tasmania, on proud display. It hails from the days when every housewife had The Australian Women’s Weekly on the armchair and a copy of a CWA Cookbook in her kitchen. It’s not for sale, and yet – it is for sale – if you really want to take something away from Tasmania (or eat it in your Air BnB kitchen). Don’t miss the CWA Shop when you’re strolling around the Elizabeth Street Mall. It’s flanked by some great cafes and pubs, and…oh, just eat the passionfruit slice.

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Jessica Adams

Jessica Adams is the editor of The Holiday Goddess Guide to Paris, London, New York and Rome (HarperCollins). Her astrology books include Essential Astrology for Women (HarperCollins) and Astrolove (Penguin).

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