Salamanca Place

The row of Georgian warehouses along Salamanca Place features thick sandstone blocks quarried by convicts in the eighteen thirties. These buildings once stored whale oil and grain, acting as the commercial anchor for Hobart’s bustling waterfront. John Lee Archer designed the early warehouses with deep cellars that kept barrels cool despite the tropical heat of the southern whaling trade. In eighteen forty-eight, a massive fire consumed the nearby customs house, leaving these structures as the rare survivors of the original colonial wharf.