editorial

The entrance of Phrontisterion, the new underground library at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art.

Phrontisterion Library Tasmania &#8211; Exterior Hero

Words by Natasha Dragun 
October 5, 2026
A new underground library awaits beneath Australia’s most provocative art museum.
<figure id="attachment_164133" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-164133" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-164133" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Phrontisterion-Library-Tasmania-Childrens-Library-Interior-and-Digital-Double-of-Rare-Historical-Book.jpeg" alt="The cave-like children’s section at Phrontisterion; digital copies of certain rare works allow the public to explore otherwise fragile texts." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Phrontisterion-Library-Tasmania-Childrens-Library-Interior-and-Digital-Double-of-Rare-Historical-Book.jpeg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Phrontisterion-Library-Tasmania-Childrens-Library-Interior-and-Digital-Double-of-Rare-Historical-Book-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Phrontisterion-Library-Tasmania-Childrens-Library-Interior-and-Digital-Double-of-Rare-Historical-Book-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Phrontisterion-Library-Tasmania-Childrens-Library-Interior-and-Digital-Double-of-Rare-Historical-Book-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-164133" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: The cave-like children’s section at Phrontisterion; digital copies of certain rare works allow the public to explore otherwise fragile texts. (All photos courtesy of Museum of Old and New Art)</figcaption></figure>
Touch a book and something unexpected happens. Across the shelves, other volumes begin to glow, illuminating connections you might never have thought to make.
Welcome to <a href="https://mona.net.au/stuff-to-do/phrontisterion?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Phrontisterion</a>, a library named for the “Thinkery” in Aristophanes’ ancient Greek comedy The Clouds—fitting for a space that feels a little like wandering through David Walsh’s brain. An eccentric millionaire who made his fortune gambling, Walsh was collecting books before he started buying art, and some 30,000 of them now line the shelves beneath his Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) on the banks of the River Derwent in Hobart, Tasmania.
Walsh’s interests run throughout the library, from a deep stash of science fiction to mathematics, gambling, and, in true MONA fashion, sex and death, while many books connect to artists whose works appear elsewhere in the museum. Mixed among them are rarities: a sixth edition of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, the last published in his lifetime; a second edition of Isaac Newton’s Opticks; and early maps of Australia. A shrine to David Bowie brings together his LPs, a gold record, and handwritten lyrics to “Starman,” while a 1623 Shakespeare First Folio—one of only two copies in <a href="https://destinasian.com/travel-guide/australia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Australia</a>—is valued at around US$6 million.
Yet much of this isn’t destined to sit behind glass. Most can be picked up and read, while even some rare material is available on request. For anything too fragile to handle, there are “digital doubles.” A Picasso sketchbook behind glass, for example, can be explored in 3D, using a dial to turn its pages as though the original were open in front of you.
Architect Nonda Katsalidis burrowed the library into the sandstone beneath Elektra—a tomblike amphitheater commissioned from German artist Anselm Kiefer—linking it back to MONA via underground tunnels. Inside, a twisting metal staircase by Hobart-based blacksmith and sculptor Pete Mattila tumbles through the space like a giant chandelier. An 18th-century neo-Gothic bookcase serves as a wunderkammer, mixing rare volumes with art and collectible objects, while the cave-like children’s library is designed as a giant book lying on its side, with crannies filled with curiosities and titles contributed by Walsh’s daughters, Grace and Sunday.
Even putting a book back is freeform: there’s no Dewey Decimal System here, so you can leave a volume wherever you please. The O—MONA’s app-based guide—keeps track and can lead you to whatever title you’re looking for next. Instead of a rigid order, the collection unfolds more like a train of thought, following subjects, tangents, and idiosyncratic leaps from one tome to the next. In the interactive shelving of the “live bays,” that idea becomes physical: touch one book and related volumes light up around it. Follow the glow and see where it takes you.
<figure id="attachment_164138" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-164138" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-164138" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Phrontisterion-Library-Tasmania-Interior.jpeg" alt="Phrontisterion is spread over two levels at MONA." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Phrontisterion-Library-Tasmania-Interior.jpeg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Phrontisterion-Library-Tasmania-Interior-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Phrontisterion-Library-Tasmania-Interior-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Phrontisterion-Library-Tasmania-Interior-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-164138" class="wp-caption-text">Phrontisterion is spread over two levels at MONA.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_164134" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-164134" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-164134" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Phrontisterion-Library-Tasmania-Exterior-Evening.jpeg" alt="The library’s entrance." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Phrontisterion-Library-Tasmania-Exterior-Evening.jpeg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Phrontisterion-Library-Tasmania-Exterior-Evening-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Phrontisterion-Library-Tasmania-Exterior-Evening-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Phrontisterion-Library-Tasmania-Exterior-Evening-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-164134" class="wp-caption-text">The library’s entrance.</figcaption></figure>
<h2>What else is hot in and around Hobart</h2>
&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.instagram.com/lumachelle.tasmania/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lumachelle</a> 
After earning acclaim at Hobart’s Franklin, chef Analiese Gregory has returned with Lumachelle, a 10-seat restaurant in a converted shed on her Huon Valley property, serving menus shaped by what she and her neighbors grow, gather, and catch.
<a href="https://www.ardenretreat.com.au/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Arden Bathhouse</a> 
Four hours, no other guests. This private bathhouse experience gives you a patch of Coal River Valley bushland—and its wood-fired sauna, cold plunge, and outdoor hot tub—all to yourself. Want to linger? The adjoining cabin comes with two bedrooms and a full kitchen.
<a href="https://www.discoverasr.com/en/citadines/australia/citadines-elizabeth-street-pier-hobart?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Citadines Elizabeth Street Pier Hobart</a> 
Not your ordinary Citadines, this smart 98-room hotel occupies a historic wharf that juts into Sullivans Cove. Dial 1800-Martini and a cocktail arrives at your door (from US$190 a night).
<a href="https://www.instagram.com/stoneandflame_hobart/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stone &amp; Flame</a> 
Fire does much of the work at this new harborside restaurant, where Japanese techniques meet Tasmanian produce across yakitori, seafood, and other dishes cooked over charcoal (@stoneandflame_hobart).
&nbsp;
This article originally appeared in the <a href="https://subscription.destinasian.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">October/November 2026</a> print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“Thinking Big”). Buy a single issue or subscribe <a href="https://subscription.destinasian.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Phrontisterion: Hobart’s Latest Avant-Garde Attraction