It’s that pub with the funny murals. It’s also Tasmania’s best-known Irish pub.
Guinness, Books and Tasmanian Murals
The New Sydney Hotel in Hobart is at the end of the Elizabeth Street Mall, so right in town – and usually with a bicycle parked outside, a Tasmanian actor propping up the bar inside and somebody rifling through the free books next to the window.
In winter the log fire blazes and the cool climate red, pours.
People who have been to Hobart once before can’t remember what it’s called, but will immediately tell you about the paintings. The weird, wonderful and slightly wonky Tasmanian murals by Marlon Zarins.
It’s the Irish pub with the Sydney name.
The New York Times
Besha Rodell, in The New York Times, wrote: “The New Sydney Hotel in the Tasmanian capital, Hobart, has found an immensely lovable middle path. Opened in 1835, the building spent a few years as a private residence, and also had a short stint as a brothel around the end of the 19th century. But for most of its history it has been one of the central business district’s most popular pubs.”
“The last renovation happened a decade ago, leaving the interior with wood-paneled walls covered in various memorabilia: old photos, vintage advertisements, license plates, taxidermied animals (a kookaburra, a raven, a ringtail possum). In the winter, bartenders pull double duty slinging drinks and stoking the leaping flames in the huge brick fireplace.”
Street Art Before It Was Hip
The New Sydney is open 364 days a year and is well-known for its curious renditions of Princess Mary, Richard Flanagan, Alannah Hill and…a Tasmanian devil posing like a stuffed Egyptian cat mummy.
The odds of any of these people, let alone the indignant marsupial, actually lining up at the bar together, is low. But hats off for trying.
Wine legend Claudio Alcorso appears on the mural, with a modest glass of his own red, admired by a Picasso beauty.
These murals decorate the walls of the beer garden, where much smoking is done.
Sir John Franklin and Lady Jane Franklin were never flashed by women prisoners at Cascade, for example.
Yet, the murals have a serious purpose, when it comes to health and safety regulations.
Inside, near the mens’ loo (and the fire extinguisher) a winking Hobart fireman is carried to safety by a laughing blonde. As a result, absolutely everybody who visits The New Sydney remembers where the extinguisher is.
Twelve Beers, No Pokies
Twelve beers on tap, no pokies, no television. People do actually read books in here. Because they can.
Wander upstairs to the lovely, peaceful, private dining room for your Hobart Meetups book group/quiz night and relax in the knowledge that you won’t have to fight your way past horse-racing on multiple screens.
The logs for the fire are stashed outside in the beer garden, below the murals and hauled in as necessary (which is a lot, in a Tasmanian winter).
The Best Little Pub In Town
Sit down with a Thomas Caffrey’s Irish Ale, a squashed (but free) German translation paperback guide to Tasmania and you may agree with the advertising outside, that this is ‘The best little pub in town.’
The New Sydney’s own lager and pale ale is on the bar, alongside XXX Boags from Launceston, Willie Smith’s Organic Cider (the Huon legend), Tasmanian Cherry Cider, Cascade First Harvest (the Hobart rival to Boags), and the Bruny Island Oxymoron dark pale ale. It’s a local pub with local beer, for local people – that visitors like a lot.
Here Since 1835
The New Sydney may have been new, and even a bit like Sydney, back in 1835, when it first appeared. The pretty pressed metal ceilings and Art Deco stylings appeared later.
In the 19th century Hobart was a very boozy town with a large number of pubs, nearby the Hobart Rivulet, running down from the mountain. This is one of the survivors, which came up through the depression years, past the last war and out the other side.
There’s a canvas awning at the entrance to the beer garden, announcing, ‘My goodness, it’s Guinness.’
My Guinness, it’s all goodness here. Welcome to old-fashioned Hobart.
