In Devonport, the ‘Festival of Learning’ has run throughout the month of September. A comprehensive program of activities was put together to demonstrate the wide variety of learning opportunities available in Devonport - in a hands on way.

The ‘Festival of Learning’ program presented 35 different learning events in and around Devonport - cooking, craft, building, coding, reading, writing, sports, animal handling, public speaking, knitting, dancing, history and more.


Figure 1 - The Author Ross Walker's caravan sits at the entrance to his presentation of the 
Adventures of Theodore to a group of young people - as part of his quest to create awareness about 
bullying and self esteem.

“It’s about ‘having a go’ and learning something new” said Devonport Mayor, Alderman Steve Martin.

“Learning and education are significant pathways to addressing our low school retention rates, workforce participation and unemployment – that’s why we’re actively working to become a ‘City of learners’ in Devonport” said Mayor Martin.


Figure 2 - Getting into the spirit of things at the TasTAFE Virtual Reality Day.

The ‘Festival of Learning’ was dreamed up by the Devonport Learning Communities Special Interest Group. The group was formed a couple of years ago from a broad cross section of organisations, to help develop Devonport into a place to ‘live and learn’.

The Group created the ‘Devonport Community Live + Learn Strategy’. The chart shows the objectives of the Strategy.  The Strategy was adopted by the Devonport City Council in late 2015 and continues to guide developments in Devonport.



Devonport City Council has taken a proactive approach to address perceptions and grow opportunities for the community, by foster learning and innovation in the community.  For a more information on Devonport’s Festival of Learning program you can visit the Devonport Councils website here or the Devonport Living + Learning Facebook page