Tasmania from below: Antarctic travellers accounts of a southern 'gateway'

Tasmania is often represented in travel accounts as a remote place at the edge of the world. ForAntarctic travellers, however, Tasmania is not only an end but also a means: a way-station rather than a destination, a point from which to commence the last leg of an expedition or a haven to return to at its conclusion, and sometimes a place to recuperate between multiple visits. This article examines representations of Tasmania – and particularly its capital city and main port, Hobart – produced by explorers and other travellers on their way to (or from) more southerly destinations. Antarctic travel texts compare and contrast Tasmania to higher latitudes, contextualising it not just as a far southern margin of the familiar world, but also as a northern limit of a lesser-known region of the globe. Both Antarctic travellers’ journeys and their narratives produce a connectedness between Tasmania and other circumpolar places, which in turn embeds the island within a new geographical imaginary: a southern rim surrounding a polar centre. These travel narratives reinforce the image of Hobart as a “gateway” but also put pressure on this term, suggesting a relationship with the far south that includes but goes beyond that of an exit or entry point.