At the foot of Mount Wellington in 1804, the city of Hobart was founded as the capital of the of the state of Tasmania. Today, locals refer to it simply as "The Mountain". It rises 1,271 metres above the city and its silhouette can be seen from almost anywhere in Hobart.
The mountain is covered in snow most of the year, sometimes even in summer. Its slopes are covered densely forested but criss-crossed by many hiking trails. The summit is reached by a narrow road approximately 22 km long, and from a viewpoint near the summit there are spectacular views of the city below, the Derwent Delta and the UNESCO World Heritage Site some 100 km to the west. And if you look at Mt Wellington from Mt. from Hobart, you can see the famous rock formations made of of coarse crystalline basalt known as the Organ Pipe. The mountain is sometimes referred to as a dormant volcano, but it wasn't - it formed when the Australian continent separated from the great continent of Gondwana some 40 million years ago.
The Aboriginal inhabitants of Tasmania called the mountain "Ungbanyaletta", "Puravetter" or "Kunanii". The Palawa people, descendants of the first inhabitants of the island, still still prefer these names. The first humans are thought to have arrived in Tasmania between 30,000 and 40,000 years ago. Their beliefs and traditions, combined with evidence modern archaeological research suggests that they lived on Mount Wellington and its environs for most of this period.
The Dutch navigator Abel Tasman, who discovered the island in 1642, most likely probably never saw Mount Wellington - his ship sailed at a considerable distance from the south-east coast of Tasmania. Up until the late 18th century, no other no other European set foot on the island. It wasn't until 1798 by an Englishman called Matthew Flinders, sailing round Tasmania. He named Mt. Wellington "Table Mountain" for its resemblance to the South African peak of the same name. The mountain was given its present name in 1832 in honour of the Duke of Wellington who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the mountain was a popular holiday destination for residents of Hobart. Many excursion sites were built on its lower slopes, but none have survived to this day - they were all destroyed in a terrible forest fire in 1967. Today, picnic areas have been organised on the site of some of the burnt-out campsites.
