Paranaple Arts Centre
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Devonport, Tasmania, Australia
| paranaple arts centre | |
|---|---|
 Interactive map of the paranaple arts centre area | |
| General information | |
| Type | Arts centre |
| Architectural style | Contemporary with adaptive reuse of Victorian civic buildings |
| Location | 145 Rooke Street Devonport, Tasmania, Australia |
| Coordinates | 41°10′39″S 146°21′38″E / 41.17750°S 146.36056°E |
| Current tenants | Devonport Regional Gallery Town Hall Theatre Devonport Visitor Information Centre |
| Completed | 2018 |
| Opened | November 2018 |
| Renovated | 2018 (adaptive reuse of 1899 Town Hall and 1902 Courthouse) |
| Cost | $71.1 million (Stage 1 precinct total)[1] |
| Owner | Devonport City Council |
| Design and construction | |
| Architects | Birrelliart + Design + Architecture (regional gallery component) Lyons (precinct lead) |
| Developer | Devonport City Council |
| Other information | |
| Seating capacity | 407 (Town Hall Theatre) |
| Website | |
| www | |
The paranaple arts centre (or simply PAC) is a multi-venue arts and cultural facility located in the central business district of Devonport, Tasmania. Opened in November 2018, the centre serves as the combined home for the Devonport Regional Gallery, the Town Hall Theatre, and the Devonport Visitor Information Centre.
The development is part of Stage 1 of Devonport’s greater $250 million Living City urban renewal project, representing the largest redevelopment of the city's civic and cultural infrastructure to date.[2]
The Arts Centre is situated within the wider paranaple precinct, adjacent to the paranaple convention centre and Market Square. The site integrates contemporary architectural additions with two significant heritage structures: the former Devonport Town Hall (1899) and the former Courthouse (1902).[1]
Masterplanned by Hames Sharley, the project was designed to improve physical and visual connections between the city’s retail core and the Mersey River foreshore. The Devonport Regional Gallery component of the building was specifically designed by Birrelliart + Design + Architecture.[1]
Naming and etymology
In official city branding, paranaple (pronounced /pærəˈnɑːplə/) is identified as the local punnilerpanner language word for "gathering place," situated by the mouth of a river. The name was selected for the precinct to reflect the site's historical significance as a meeting point and to anchor the Living City project in the region's Indigenous heritage.[3]
Linguistic records indicate that paranaple is one of several recorded Aboriginal names for the Mersey River, with historical variants including pirinapel (recorded by McGeary) and ponrabbel (recorded by Joseph Milligan). The specific version paranaple was documented by the Danish adventurer Jørgen Jørgensen.[4]
The lowercase "p" in paranaple reflects the original orthographic standards of palawa kani at the time of the centre's establishment in 2018, which favoured all-lowercase text to distinguish the revived language from English conventions.[5] However, in late 2024, the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre and the Tasmanian Government updated these standards to adopt initial capital letters for gazetted place names (e.g., Lutruwita and Kunanyi) to reflect the evolution of the language in the community.[6]