Working boats will take centre stage at the next Australian Wooden Boat Festival, with organisers expecting hundreds of vessels, including some from Asia and New Zealand, on Hobart’s waterfront in February.
Held every second year since 1994, the festival is billed by organisers as Tasmania’s largest free event.
Organisers said the 2025 festival attracted more than 400 wooden boats and recorded 56,000 visitations over four days.
The program for the free four-day event, which runs from February 5-8, has now been launched.
Organisers said the fleet would range from historic fishing boats and trading vessels to yachts, tall ships and traditional sailing craft. Visiting vessels from Bali, Sulawesi, Taiwan, Japan and New Zealand are also expected.
Festival director Paul Stephanus said the theme was a chance to share the stories of the boats and the people behind them.
“Our Working Boats theme celebrates the wooden boats that earn their keep, carry people and cargo and connect communities,” he said.
“Every vessel has a story and we’re looking forward to bringing those stories together on Hobart’s waterfront, whether they’ve sailed across oceans or just around the corner.”
The Shipwrights Village, Noisy Boatyard, Wooden Boat Symposium, Little Sailors Village and Maritime Marketplace will all return. New exhibitions, demonstrations and performances have also been added.
This year’s festival poster features May Queen, which organisers describe as Australia’s oldest trading vessel still afloat. The original painting by New Zealand marine artist A.D. Blake was gifted to the festival.
May Queen spent more than a century carrying timber, apples and quarried stone along Tasmania’s rivers and coastline. Volunteers now maintain the vessel at Constitution Dock.
The City of Hobart has also signed a new six-year agreement to support the 2027, 2029 and 2031 festivals.
The program is now available at www.awbf2027.org.au. The full schedule and a directory of festival boats will be published online in late January.
