Melbourne Patron

Mona sounds like your great-aunt. Or someone with big hair that Craig McLachlan would sing about . It is also the snappy and memorable acronym for Hobart's newest - and so far, very successful - tourist attraction: The Museum of Old and New Art . View from MONA Cafe Opened in 2011 after a $75 million refurb of its former identity, the Moorilla Museum of Antiquities, MONA is happily situated among the Moorilla Estate winery on the Berriedale peninsula of Hobart. Outdoor stage area Australia's largest privately-funded museum, its artworks come from the collection of David Walsh , a Tasmanian millionaire and professional gambler known as quite a character (or,  according to the MONA website , a "prick"). The art featured tends to err on the side of shocking, frequently referencing sex, death and violence, and apparently designed to challenge the viewer's sensibilities wherever possible. In a nutshell, MONA is the must-see attraction of Hobart, ...

A few weeks ago, Melbourne was abuzz with talk of MONA Hobart 's major winter event, DARK MOFO . Sadly it is over now, but I hazard a guess that a good 50% of attendees were Victorian, being such avid lovers of culture and all. (CLEARLY arts and culture don't exist anywhere else in Australia. We're so CULTURIST.) Part of MOFO's publicity drive was a rather exciting competition  with QANTAS , offering $100,000 worth of free return flights to Hobart for the exhibition. All you had to do was enter your details and divulge what you were like after dark. Since "I am your worst nightmare" (ahem), it made total sense that I was a lucky recipient of flights. Housemate was happily rung in for Hobart-ing, and interstate trip was born. Can I just say, I totally understand the appeal of red-eye flights when you are buying your own, or want to have more time in your destination, or are doing a fly-in-fly-out day trip, or are an early riser (weirdo), but I never, EVER c...