Fullers Bookshop: Hobart Travel Guide (4.7★)

A bookshop on a working street

Collins Street is not a postcard street. It is a weekday run of shopfronts and offices in Hobart’s compact grid, and on most days the footpath is full of office workers rather than tour groups.

That is the appeal of Fullers Bookshop at number 131. You step off an ordinary city block, the door closes on the traffic, and the only job left is reading spines. It is an independent bookshop, consistently well rated by the people who find it, and still a quieter stop than the waterfront.

Finding 131 Collins Street

Hobart’s centre is small enough to cover on foot, and Fullers sits right in the middle of it.

• From Franklin Square: walk one block north from Macquarie Street to Collins Street.
• From the Elizabeth Street Mall: a few minutes’ walk; Collins Street crosses the mall’s southern end.
• From Salamanca Place or Constitution Dock: allow roughly 10–15 minutes uphill through the CBD.
• By bus: Metro Tasmania services stop along Elizabeth Street, a short walk away.

Hobart has no train or tram network, so walking or the bus is how most visitors get here. Driving into the CBD means paying for street or multi-storey parking, so the walk usually wins.

When the aisles are empty

The forecast crowd pattern is clear. On weekdays it’s quietest from 9am to 10am and again from 4pm to 5pm. On weekends the calm windows are 9am–11am and 3pm–5pm.

Avoid the weekend middle of the day. Between 12pm and 3pm on Saturdays and Sundays is when it usually gets busiest, and squeezing past other browsers in narrow aisles is no fun.

Check the day before you plan around those windows. At the moment Fullers opens 8:30am–5:30pm Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm on Saturday and 10am–4pm on Sunday. So on Sunday the quiet morning really runs from opening at 10am to 11am, and the afternoon window ends at the 4pm close.

Browsing and buying at Fullers

Browsing in a good bookshop takes a bit of give and take. A few habits help.

• Ask the staff. Independent booksellers sell on conversation. Say what you last loved and let them suggest something.
• Ask about Tasmanian writers. Tasmania has a strong literary scene, and a local bookseller is the best person to point you to it.
• Order what isn’t on the shelf. If you’re in town for a few days, ask whether a title can be ordered in before you leave.
• Pay the Australian way. Tap-to-pay cards and phones are standard across Hobart. Tipping is not expected in a shop.

Take your time but read the room. If the shop is busy, step aside from the counter while you decide. If you’re travelling light, a paperback or two packs flatter than any souvenir.

How long to stay, and why it fits a Hobart day

Thirty minutes is enough for a focused look. An hour suits anyone who reads back covers properly. Because the shop is central, it slots between other stops without a detour.

A weekday morning works well. Arrive close to 9am, have the shelves mostly to yourself, then walk down to the waterfront before lunch. On a weekend, swap the order: Salamanca Place first, Fullers from 3pm when the midday crowd has thinned.

Pairing it with the rest of the CBD

The streets around Fullers hold a lot of Hobart’s older city within a few blocks.

• Franklin Square: a block south, with lawns and big old trees, and a good place to open your new book.
• Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery: down toward the waterfront, for the island’s natural and Aboriginal history.
• Salamanca Place: a row of Georgian sandstone warehouses, now shops, galleries and cafés.
• Constitution Dock: fishing boats and the harbour, a short walk on from the museum.

On a clear day, look up from almost any street corner here and you’ll see kunanyi/Mount Wellington behind the city. If you plan a drive up the mountain later, buy something to read at the top.