Lutana is a northern Hobart suburb between Moonah, New Town Bay and the Derwent industrial waterfront. Its distinctive early streets were planned as worker housing for the Electrolytic Zinc Company.
The 1919 garden village
Glenorchy City Council records construction of the Lutana workers’ estate from 1919. Architect Walter Richmond Butler designed an Arts and Crafts-influenced group of concrete-stucco houses, with later brick and weatherboard homes, a shop and community hall.
The curved streets and consistent early houses are still legible, but this is a residential neighbourhood. Walk from public streets, do not enter yards and avoid treating private homes as museum exhibits.
Housing and the zinc works
The estate cannot be separated from the zinc works at Risdon. Industrial employment drove the suburb’s creation and connected it to rail, wharves and other working-class districts along the Derwent.
The industrial waterfront remains operational. There is no general visitor access to the works, and historical interest does not override safety, security or environmental controls.
Seeing Lutana in context
Lutana Woodlands Reserve provides elevated views across Glenorchy and the Wellington Range. For a wider picture, connect Lutana with Moonah, Glenorchy and Risdon.
These neighbouring pages show how twentieth-century industry, transport and housing expanded Hobart far beyond the colonial waterfront.