CWA Hobart Gift Shop

Great produce, easy to spend lots but you get a good haul for your money, too many tasty things.

The store has been there in that location for over 70 years - it was bought by the Tasmanian CWA in 1951 for $15 000 and was originally a butchers shop. CWA women sell their wares on consignment and the shop helped many talented women provide for their families during hard times. You can read more about this shop and CWA Tasmania generally on their website. A great place to buy handmade goods - knitted, crocheted, and baked! There is a room in the rear of the store with more goods which you are welcome to go through to, though this isn't obvious upon entering the store. They have eftpos and no sneaky card charges, either. I bought my Mum a lovely looking jar of lemon and orange marmalade for $7 to take back to her for mother's day.

You cannot miss this place. You have to check out the tea cosies and handmade cakes, slices and treats in the front windows. Inside is full of joyous, lovingly hand-made goodies. Just picked up a new knitted hat and a jar of pickles. Excellent and friendly service. Must see in Hobart.

Loved this place. Friendly staff. Great little gems. Bought a few tea cosies and gifts to bring home.

We just HAD to visit here after the episode of "Gourmet Farmer" where Matthew Evans dearly wanted to join the CWA to sell some of his baked goodies and had a very entertaining bake-off with one of their champion cooks!😂 Very interesting to browse around amongst the baked goodies & little kids' clothes, LOVE their custom tea towels & wish I'd bought a few more. Really enjoyed chatting with the ladies at the counter. I reluctantly passed on the jams, only due to air travel luggage restrictions😔, our bags already being of iffy weight.😉

I hate to be the only negative review but found the staff extremely rude, really made us feel uncomfortable to the point where we all decided we couldn’t stay in the shop. I understand the fear and tension around covid but we were all wearing masks, had signed into the store, and are all fully vaccinated etc. and we’re still met with a lady who proceeded to rouse on us that we hadn’t signed in. My mum then assured her we had signed in, adding that we’d had covid within the last month so we’re immune for at least 4 weeks - something mum intended to make her feel safer. We were then stared at angrily by the shop attendant and swiftly exited the shop in discomfort. She made us all feel like we’d done something terrible when we had 100% followed the rules and guidelines and were just trying to support the Hobart community and the CWA.

Where does one start? A Hobart institution selling eminently affordable and delicious goods. I get my home made jams and honey from there and you can find an ever changing and temptalising array of cakes and slices and biscuits and treats. Can't go wrong. Just got to be there at the opportune time. Oh and they accept credit cards now!

The flowers are fresh, beautiful, an amazing price and vary from week to week. There is a fabulous selection of tea cozzies and other hand knitted products and the lovely ladies who volunteer there are always friendly and helpful.

I grew up in a country town, where the CWA ladies had a real presence. Whether they were running events or fixing things or making things better or just smashing the cake section at the local show every year, everyone knew all about the CWA. In big cities they don't have a presence, really, because CWA stands for COUNTRY Women's Association. However, Hobart isn't really a big city. It pretends to be. And for locals, it sure is! But travel to any other state capital in Australia and you'll probably be a bit overwhelmed if Hobart's all you know as a Big City. However, there are so many joys that come with Hobart's weird in-between city state, and one of those is right here: the CWA Gift Shop. It's cash only ("because the bank takes money from you for every card transaction!" how rude) and full of incredible hand-made goods, from crocheted throws to jams to beanies to cakes to everything your grandmother's talents extend to. And they've been in this exact spot since 1951. My current favourite thing to do is, whenever I'm feeling slightly or dramatically under the weather, drop in here and get myself a treat. My mum and my grandmothers all live interstate but the CWA ladies step in as my surrogates for a bit of heartwarming TLC for the mind and tummy, and it's pretty wonderful. Oh, and also: pineapple tea cosies.

Here's a hidden little gem. The Country Women's Association shop is great - with a mouth-watering selection of cakes, biscuits, slices, pickles, jams and relishes made fresh by ladies (and men perhaps - despite the title) in the surrounding country areas and brought in to be sold in this city shop. The ladies in charge informed me the vast majority of the baked goods on display were made fresh that morning. Each product - be it a sponge cake, tray of biscuits or jars of jams and relishes - is numbered, with the number corresponding to the lady who made them (it's all anonymous, only the ladies who run the shop know the secret identities of each cook). The shop takes a 25% cut of any takings with the baker/jam maker/knitter getting the rest. They also have loads of knitwear - from tea cosies to jumpers for kiddies - all of it first rate and all of it at great prices.