No use wishing for days long gone

ARRIVING in Hobart in the 1980s, I found a quaint country city of established businesses, inner residential areas of old money and outer suburbs of high unemployment. Hydro, timber and mining days were ending and the rot was setting in as stores closed, banks and regional offices relocated and shoppers siphoned to the newfangled Northgates and Eastlands. The city was dying. And then something happened! Mainlanders moved in, property prices rose, city life returned. But it needed more because a city without visitors has only the prosperity of its residents to maintain its dynamism. Luckily, tourists found Hobart. They have provided impetus for growth in cafes, restaurants, accommodation, employment and a new vitality.

But even that can’t be sustained indefinitely because all progress is cyclic. In the same way, Hobart rode on the back of the Hydro, forestry, etc, it will ride on a tourism wave that will give way to the next chapter And there will be negatives along the way but that should never be used as argument for trying to regain days past. The Hobart I discovered was a product of a different civilisation that cannot, no matter the dreams, be returned without inflicting the pain of unemployment and stagnation. Today is Hobart’s tourism time. It should be embraced, enjoyed, used to update and prepare for whatever is coming next. To try to turn back the cycle is simply wishing for days long gone.