Museum of Old and New Art (MONA)
Provocative subterranean museum of ancient and contemporary art on the Derwent River.
The Museum of Old and New Art, known as Mona, stands on the Berriedale peninsula on the River Derwent, about eleven kilometres north of central Hobart, within the grounds of the Moorilla winery. It was created by the Tasmanian collector David Walsh, who had opened the smaller Moorilla Museum of Antiquities on the site in 2001. That museum closed in 2006 for a major rebuilding programme, and Mona opened to the public on 21 January 2011. It is the largest privately funded museum in Australia.
The building was designed by the architectural practice Fender Katsalidis and is largely set underground, cut into the sandstone cliffs of the peninsula. A modest entrance at ground level, beside two earlier houses designed by Roy Grounds, leads down a spiral staircase to three levels of windowless galleries. Many visitors arrive by ferry from Hobart. In June 2026 Mona opened a new underground wing combining the Elektra amphitheatre by Anselm Kiefer with the Phrontisterion, a library displaying tens of thousands of books from Walsh's collection.
The collection spans antiquities, modern and contemporary art from David Walsh's holdings, displayed without conventional wall labels; visitors use a digital guide instead. Well-known works include Sidney Nolan's large mural Snake and Wim Delvoye's Cloaca Professional, alongside site-specific pieces such as James Turrell's light installations. Mona also runs the Dark Mofo winter festival in Hobart and operates restaurants, a winery cellar door and accommodation on the site.
Highlights
- Underground galleries carved into sandstone cliffs above the River Derwent
- Ferry journey from Hobart's Brooke Street Pier to the museum
- Anselm Kiefer's Elektra amphitheatre in the wing opened in 2026
- The Phrontisterion library of rare books, maps and manuscripts
- James Turrell light installations, including Amarna on the grounds
