Dog exercise areas

Hobart has a range of places where you can exercise your dog. These include off-lead, on-lead and restricted dog exercise areas.

Regular exercise helps keep dogs healthy. It can reduce unwanted behaviours such as barking, digging and boredom.

Some dog exercise areas have restrictions. These may apply at certain times of the day or when sportsgrounds are being used for sport or school activities.

There are also areas where dogs are not allowed. You may be fined if you walk your dog in those areas or allow a dog off the lead in an on-lead area.

Locations

Prohibited (not allowed) public areas

  • Grounds of a school, preschool, kindergarten, creche or other place for the reception of children without prior permission of the individual in charge.
  • Any shopping entre (defined in the Act as a collection of shops in an enclosed area covered by a roof or forming a courtyard or square, excluding any area provided for the parking of vehicles) or shop.
  • The grounds of a public swimming pool.
  • Any playing area or sportsground on which sport is being played.
  • Within 10 metres if a children's playground. The exemptions to this area specified in the Dog Control Act 2000 and include:
    • Guide dogs and hearing dogs may enter any premises
    • Pet or pet-grooming shops
    • Veterinary premises
    • Other premises related to the care and management of dogs
  • All areas that provide sensitive habitat for wildlife other than on-lead on managed tracks and trails or off-lead areas where designated, and:
    • Beaumaris Zoo
    • Blinking Billy Beach, extending from frontage adjacent to 676A Sandy Bay Road to frontage adjacent to 712 Sandy Bay Road
    • Cornelian Bay – from the restaurant to the boat sheds including the playground except on formed track
    • Cartwright Point Reserve, Sandy Bay – area above Sandy Bay Road
    • Derwentwater Reserve (aka Lords Beach)
    • New Town Bay Reserve – wetlands
    • Red Chapel Beach and Red Chapel Reserve, Sandy Bay
    • Skyline Reserve – area off 27 Brinsmead Road, Mt Nelson
    • Ten (10) metres from any creek or rivulet edge except on formal tracks and trails.

Restricted (not allowed) at all times

  • All bushland reserves other than on-lead on managed tracks and trails or off-lead areas where designated
  • Battery area at Alexander Battery
  • Cenotaph and Surrounds
  • Elizabeth Mall, Elizabeth Street (between Collins and Liverpool Streets)
  • Farm Gate Market during marketing hours
  • Intercity cycleway - Regatta Grounds to municipal boundary
  • Legacy Park (formally known ad Soldiers Memorial Community Hub)
  • Long Beach, Sandy Bay
  • Marieville Esplanade – grassed area between the entrance to the boat sheds and the Royal Hobart Yacht Club
  • Mawson Place – whilst events are being held
  • McRobies Road Gully – 10 metre exclusion zone around the perimeter of the waste management site
  • North Hobart Skate Park
  • Regatta Grounds when being used for a community activity
  • Salamanca Market and Salamanca Square during market hours of Saturday 5.30 am - 3 pm
  • Sports facilities:
    • Domain Athletics Centre
    • Doone Kennedy Aquatic Centre and surrounds
    • New Town Netball Centre
    • New Town Oval
    • North Hobart Oval
    • Queenborough oval and surrounds
    • South Hobart Oval (from 1 July 2026)
    • TCA
  • Waterworks Reserve
  • Wellington Court including the Bank Arcade
  • West Hobart Skate Bowl (also know as John Doggett Skate Bowl)

Wellington Park and Kunanyi / Mount Wellington restrictions can be found on the Wellington Park website.

Wellington Park

Wellington Park and Kunanyi / Mount Wellington restrictions can be found on the park's website:

Wellington Park website

Off-lead exercise areas

  • Alexandra Battery, Churchill Avenue, Sandy Bay – Alexandra Battery except the Battery, the lookout and the car park
  • Blinking Billy Point Reserve, Sandy Bay
  • Cartwright Point Reserve, Sandy Bay – area below Sandy Bay Road
  • Churchill Avenue, Sandy Bay – open space adjoining Churchill Avenue
  • Cornelian Bay – the foreshore car park to Cornelian Bay Point
  • John Turnbull Dog Park, Lenah Valley
  • Kalang Avenue Reserve, Lenah Valley
  • Queens Domain – The Wireless Station (area bounded by the Summit Loop Road) and mowed area to the east of the summit loop road, and the area between the Doone Kenndy Hobart Aquatic Centre and the Domain Tennis Centre
  • Rangeview Crescent Reserve, Lenah Valley
  • Regatta Grounds except when used for a community activity
  • Ridgeway – old recreation oval (track to oval on-lead)
  • Ross Patent Slip, Battery Point – grassed area off Napoleon Street
  • Short Beach and Errol Flynn Reserve, Marieville Esplanade, Sandy Bay
  • Sportsgrounds when sport is not being played, being used by a school or maintenance being undertaken or when the ground is booked
  • Surrounds of sportsgrounds except where prohibited (not allowed)
  • Wellesley Park, South Hobart – area below the sportsgrounds

On-lead exercise areas

  • All road pathways and road related areas within the municipal area
  • Dogs can only be exercised on-lead on managed tracks and trails, and grassed areas in all Council parks, reserves and bushland areas where indicated
  • Ancanthe Gardens, Lenah Valley
  • Bridge of Remembrance
  • Cenotaph and within 50 metres of the monument
  • Franklin Square
  • MacFarlane Street, South Hobart – public open space over footbridge alongside the Hobart Rivulet (entry off Tara or MacFarlane streets)
  • Mathers Place
  • New Town Bay Reserve
  • Nutgrove Beach between western entrance (adjacent to Lipscombe Avenue) and access on eastern side of Nutgrove Park
  • John Doggett Park, West Hobart (excluding playground and skate bowl)
  • John Turnbull Park and John Turnbull Oval
  • Salamanca Lawns
  • St Davids Park

Wellington Park and Kunanyi / Mount Wellington restrictions can be found on the Wellington Park website.

Restricted exercise areas

Beaches

Dogs are allowed off-lead between:

  • 6 pm and 10 am during daylight saving time
  • 3 pm and 10 am at all other times.

Dogs are allowed on-lead between:

  • 10 am and 6 pm during daylight saving time
  • 10 am and 3 pm at all other times.

Nutgrove Beach (except for the area western entrance (adjacent to Lipscombe Avenue) and access to eastern side of Nutgrove Park which is on-lead only at all times).

Parks

In Princes Park, Cascade Gardens, Fitzroy Gardens, Benjafield Terrace, dogs are:

  • allowed off-lead between:
    • 7 pm and 9 am during daylight saving time
    • 3 pm and 9 am at all other times.
  • allowed on-lead between:
    • 9 am and 7 pm during daylight saving time
    • 9 am and 3 pm at all other times.

In Girrabong Play Area, dogs are:

  • allowed off-lead between 9 am and 7 pm
  • not allowed between 7 am and 9 am

In Soundy Park, dogs are:

  • allowed off-lead between 3 pm and 9 am
  • allowed on-lead between 9 am and 3 pm

Bushland

In Knocklofty Reserve, the following restrictions apply to tracks and trails in the area between Forest Road car park, Poets Road, Fielding Drive reservoir and the walking track to the west.

Dogs are allowed off-lead between:

  • 6 am and 8 pm during daylight saving time
  • 7 am and 5 pm at all other times.

Dogs are allowed on-lead between:

  • 8 pm and 6 am during daylight saving time
  • 5 pm and 7 am at all other times.

All other tracks and trails of Knocklofty Reserve are on-lead at all times.

Training areas

Soldiers Memorial Oval (formally, the Domain Cross Roads Oval) is declared as an off-lead dog training area during dog training hours.

For more information, see the Dog Management Policy.

You can also search our parks listing for parks where dogs are allowed. Simply select "dogs allowed on lead" or "dogs allowed off lead" in the "features" box and click "search".

Find a park or sportsground

Walking your dog

There are certain things that you need to remember when walking your dog. These are set out in the Dog Control Act 2000.

  • When in a designated off-lead area, dogs must remain under effective control of the person in charge of the dog at all times.
  • If your dog poos in a public place you are required to pick up after it. The City provides dog tidy bags in the majority of its parks to dispose of your dog's droppings, so please use them. You should also always carry your own plastic bags.
  • Dogs must remain on lead at all times when on a road or road-related area such as footpaths and nature strips.
  • Restricted breeds and dogs declared dangerous are still subject to conditions in an off-lead exercise area.
  • You are not permitted to walk more than two dogs at a time on a footpath.

Dog tidy bags

All dog tidy bags supplied in dispensers across Hobart's parks and dog exercise areas are compostable. They are made from plants not oil, and certified under Australian composting standards.

These bags can be disposed of in your home FOGO bin.

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