Beaumaris / Hobart Zoo (Hobart, Tasmania)

• Operated: 1895–1937

• Overview: Founded by Mary Grant Roberts, it was Tasmania’s first formal zoo and featured a mix of native and exotic animals.

• Major Historical Event: Most famous as the place where the last known thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) was filmed and died in captivity in 1936. This event is memorialised in Australia’s National Threatened Species Day.

• Closure: The zoo struggled financially and closed in 1937.

• Conservation Impact

• None in modern sense — it represents what happens without conservation policy.

• The death of the last known thylacine in 1936 later inspired:

  • Australia’s endangered species legislation

  • National Threatened Species Day

• Welfare Controversy

• The thylacine died from exposure and neglect, not humane euthanasia.

• Kept in a small enclosure with little shelter.

• Became one of Australia’s most powerful symbols of:

  • Captive animal mismanagement

  • Extinction through human indifference

Mary Roberts and Mike