The Tasmanian Tuxedo
Oct 20One of you summed up the unpretentious culture of Hobart perfectly: “It’s not what you wear or the car you drive when you go into the bush. It’s the rock you climb.”
When you choose Hobart, you sacrifice a life of high fashion, of keeping up with your neighbours’ spectacular purchases. Your priorities turn toward your special access to nature, to creative endeavours and hobbies, to more time together and less time commuting.
This doesn’t mean you have to wear bushwalking boots to dinner at Aloft. But no one will mock you if you do.
In our interviews, we always asked for symbols and enduring metaphors of Hobart. Some of you spoke of the mountain or the bridge. Others chose animals, like the Spotted handfish, a simple Currawong or a Bennetts wallaby, happily at home in a suburban backyard.
Quite a few of you mentioned the Tasmanian Tuxedo, the black puffer jacket.
The lack of pomposity and arrogance in Hobart culture is crucial to understand if you want to succeed here.
In a big city, you can get away with burning and betraying people, in business and in life. You can peacock about, bragging endlessly about your accomplishments — even exaggerate them to the point of absurdity. Egos don’t work here. Your success is tied to your willingness to help others, selflessly, and to being honest, being real.
As we design and plan together, as we form teams to solve problems, and as we respond to big ideas from elsewhere, we can begin to define a typically Hobartian way to build.
October 20, 2017 at 10:01 am
StephenHobart is about qualities – not quantities. We don’t brag about the highest, the biggest or the most. “Winner takes all” doesn’t sit well here, we celebrate the underdogs and share pride in successes where more of us benefit. We must continue to revel in and promote uniqueness – whether in our events, our businesses, our products and most importantly, in our built environment.
October 20, 2017 at 10:53 am
MelissaI wholeheartedly agree with your comment. I haven’t heard this before.: ” Egos don’t work here. Your success is tied to your willingness to help others, selflessly, and to being honest, being real.” I love it!!!!!!!. It’s something so unique to this place. I haven’t found this anywhere else and it makes me proud to be here. The world needs more of Hobart.
October 21, 2017 at 1:19 pm
AlbertThe culture is so different from Melbourne, where I came from, and so refreshing. When I first arrived I thought I would see that it was only a honeymoon feeling. But it never ended. I wish we COULD give everyone who visits a Tassie Tuxedo. I guess we’d have to make them here, then. But they would be $800 each! No no, bad idea.
October 23, 2017 at 6:01 pm
BenWell, considering this talking point is about culture, it’s only a little off the mark in describing Tasmanian culture, spot-on in describing Hobart culture.
Outside Hobart it’s not at all about which rock you climbed, or about your Tasmanian tuxedo. Those are for city folk, and not even much used by locals at all, really. Tourists rug up to the nines, often in matching Antarctic weather gear. Locals kinda show off with how little they can get away with wearing.
Thongs, shorts, t-shirt and maybe if it’s really really cold, a thin polar fleece jacket on top… now that’s Tasmanian.
November 24, 2017 at 6:38 pm
melissaI love that when my husband turns up to golf in long pants, his mates know its really cold. i still laugh that you can tell the locals on a flight coming into Hobart by what they are wearing.