David Walsh's Museum of Old & New Art, Hobart.

David Walsh’s Museum of New & Old Art.

When I first Settled in Hobart in the 70’s ,I some how made the transition from pig farmer to the owner of a perfumery shop owner in Wrest Point Casino.  It was here ,that I first became aware of David Walsh. Often after closing the shop, I would pop into the roulette and card gambling area of Wrest Point. In those day everyone was required to be appropriately dressed and it was  with some astonishment that David and his two friends could be observed dragging a pillow case of  chips from one Black Jack table to the next. Those of you who are not familiar with gambling card games, it is reasonable to claim that after poker, black jack would be one of the most popular  card games for clubs and casino. The reason no doubt would be that the establishment was able to be the permanent banker with all players betting against it. Casinos, unlike domestic  games would use several packs of card, thus improving their winning odds.

Enter the card counter, for this was really what David Walsh and friends were. They obviously had considerable mathematical skills as they were able to calculate the likely odds  of winning cards being turned over by the dealer. Casinos of course don’t like to lose, so over time David and friends were banned  from playing at Wrest Point., being young they looked internationally.  Each of them had some interest in the arts, one collected  Roman mosaics, one Egyptian antiquities, while the third member of the trio had an interest in the arts of  Central America. I suspect that was where the title for the current museum came from, the Museum of Old and New Art.

Moorilla Winery and Vineyard had been established by another great lover of art Claude Alcorso. Claude had been a moving force in the establishment of Opera Australia in Sydney before moving to Tasmania were he established Silk and Textiles, an art based fabric manufacturing business. He set a new high watermark for  growing grapes in the state despite considerable  local scepticism.  The local population like many Australians, they considered Tasmania  as too cold, like some sort of island  a few miles from Antarctica! During the 60’s and 70’s there was a revival of interest in table wine in Australia ,Claude realised the potentional of the acres of limestone soils along the banks or the River Derwent. He was very much a hands on fellow and I still have a bottle of his first vintage he gave me complete with it’s hand written cloth label. Unfortunately, family drama intervened resulting in a fire sale of the estate, enter David Walsh who purchased the vineyard and winery.

The old family home had been built along the lines of an ancient Roman Villa with a central open courtyard,currently the entrance area to the museum. This is the area were the lift takes visitors down into the bowels of the underground complex. The Alcorsos used  this area to stage musical evenings and I have personally spent many a pleasant evening there in front of the fire listening to various musical  groups. Later, when David Walsh acquired the property, it was used as an upmarket restaurant and diners could look down from their tables at a floor of Roman mosaic.

I doubt that anyone  back in those early days would have imaged that David Walsh would amass such a vast fortune from gambling or that he would invest some 180 million dollars building his personal artistic statement. A visitor must suspend belief in everything they believe a museum should be. Who would imagine someone would create a huge underground cave like space of several  floors, cut through solid rock. It is not surprising that the  international magazine Gourmet Traveller named the experience as the best in the world for 2011.

I shall not attempt to describe the experience, any reader may view the museum by logging on to the MONA web page. It is of course to every ones taste. David Walsh  would best be described as an iconoclast with little regard for the opinion of others. He is a creator in his own right, who has generously invited the world to view his gift to Tasmania, his “Subversive Adult Disneyland”.