Our Museum Courtyard Cafe is nestled in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG), with access via the Macquarie Street Commissariat entrance as well as the main Watergate entrance, on Dunn Place, Hobart.
TMAG is Australia's second-oldest museum and is located in one of Australia's most historically significant sites.
TMAG is a combined museum, art gallery and state herbarium, with the broa
dest collection mandate of any single similar institution in Australia.
As you take your time soaking up the culture from longer term exhibitions and new temporary collections and exhibitions, make you way over before, during or after your viewing to re-fuel. Commissariat Store 1808–10
The Commissariat Store is the oldest surviving public building in Tasmania and one of Australia’s earliest public buildings. Construction of this two-storey brick building commenced in 1808 to house the colony’s valuable foodstuffs and supplies and provide office space for the Commissariat Department. Close to the waterfront it provided easy access for the unloading of goods, with the top floor being used as a loft to store light materials such as hay, while the lower floor acted as the provisioning store. It played a vital role in the colony’s early economy as the focal point for receiving and distributing both imported and locally produced goods. As the demand for more storage grew, the surrounding buildings were added along with the Watergate wall, to define the Commissariat Complex in the form it appears today. This building has undergone extensive alterations and little of its original form survives.
