�In the late 1800s Hobart, together with the other principal cities of Australia, were gripped with the desire to become grown-up, like the great cities of Britain and to incorporate many of the features of British inventiveness and commercial talent then sweeping the world.

A basic requirement for city growth was an efficient public transport system.� Sydney and Melbourne had established steam, horse and cable public transport networks but the virtue of Hobart, its compactness, allowed the development of a neat tramway system with the advantages of electric traction without other competing systems.

In the 1880s a group of British businessmen approached the Tasmanian Government with a proposal to build a tramway system to serve the people of Hobart.� At this stage no motive power had been nominated but as time went on, it became increasingly obvious that the businessmen had wanted all along to have an electric network probably with the parallel intention of supplying electricity to homes and businesses along the routes of the tramways.

In 1884 the Tasmanian Parliament passed an Act which empowered a company to establish tramways in Hobart.� The Government�s original idea was to build a line along Macquarie Street and Cascade Road to the Cascade Brewery.� The route about 4km in length was to be operated by steam powered trams with a track width of 3�6�.� Other types of propulsion including cable and horse were examined, however, the London businessmen whom the Government had chosen to operate the tramway were still very much in favour of electricity with an overhead wire system.� Initially the Government and people were opposed to an electric tramway due in part to their ignorance of the new-fangled power source and possible opposition by gas suppliers who saw their monopoly of lighting and power being eroded.

Despite this rejection the Hobart Electric Tramway Company was formed by the London entrepreneurs who then built a model tramway in the Hobart Town Hall and opened it to the public in an attempt to win support for the silent clean power.� Eventually, eight years after the Act of Parliament had been passed, a contract was let in 1892 to the London firm of Siemens Bros. For the construction of the tramway system.� The contract was let for a very low figure as the contractors hoped that the system would act as an advertisement for their products in Australia.

Initially three routes were constructed by the Company.� The first ran from the Hobart railway station along the originally proposed route to the Cascades;� the second left the G.P.O. for Sandy Bay and the third ran along Elizabeth Street to Moonah.

The first service commenced on 23 September 1893, with twenty double deck tram cars, more than a month later than originally planned as the new electric system was causing interference on the circuits of the Hobart telephone system.

The Hobart Electric Tramways had the distinction of being the first complete electric tramway system to be established in the Southern Hemisphere, although short unsuccessful lines had been opened in Victoria and New South Wales in 1889 and 1890.

Apart from being the first completely electric tramway in Australia, the Hobart network was the only Australian system to use sliding bow collectors to collect the power from the overhead wire, similar to the principle used on heavy electric railways.

The Hobart City Council was never ecstatic about a private company operating the mass transport system in its domain.� At the time the general feeling amongst governments in Australia was that the public transport systems would benefit greatly from public ownership.� Coinciding with action taken in other states to take transport systems out of private hands, in 1911 the Hobart City Council made the first serious attempt to take control of the London owned Hobart Electric Tramway Company.� The entrepreneurs fought off the challenge and the Council consulted the Government about future moves.� Two years later the Government introduced the Tramways Bill which gave the Council the right in law to control the trams.� The termination of the Hobart Electric Tramway Company�s franchise took place on the 3 June 1913 when the transport of Hobart became truly public.

The system became the Hobart Municipal Tramways and the Council launched an expansion programme that was to double the size of the network within ten years.� Significant growth followed in suburbs such as Sandy Bay, Lenah Valley and West Hobart due to the availability of a cheap, efficient commuter service.� In the period between 1932 and 1942 the tramways experienced their heyday.� The system grew to its maximum extent in those years with a total of almost 30km of track being operated.� It was at the end of this period, in 1942, that the ultimate demise of the Hobart trams was signalled.� The first tram route to operate in Hobart, to the Cascades, was scrapped and replaced by trolley buses.� Another ten years passed before further closures took place.� During those years there had been considerable agitation about the state of Sandy Bay Road so it was decided that in conjunction with the rebuilding of the road that trams would be replaced by trolley buses.