Arikah Map

History of Tasmania

This article does not cite its references or sources.
You can help Wikipedia by introducing appropriate citations.This article has been tagged since November 2006.
History of Tasmania:Flag of Australia.svg
This article is part of the series
History of Australia
States and Territories
New South Wales
Victoria
Queensland
Western Australia
South Australia
Tasmania
Australian Capital Territory
Northern Territory

The history of Tasmania begins at the end of the most recent ice age (approximately 10 000 years ago) when it is believed that the island was joined to the Australian mainland.


Contents

Indigenous people

Main article: Tasmanian Aborigines

Tasmania was once inhabited by an indigenous population, the Tasmanian Aborigines, and evidence indicates their presence in the territory, later to become an island, at least 35 000 years ago. The indigenous population at the time of British settlement in 1803 has been estimated at 5 000, but through persecution (see Black War and Black Line) and disease the population was eradicated (some mixed-blood descendants still survive). The impact of introduced diseases, prior to the first European estimates of the size of Tasmania's population, means that the original indigenous population could have been somewhat larger than 5 000. The last full-blooded Tasmanian Aborigine was Truganini - she died in Hobart in 1876.

European arrival

Main article: Van Diemens Land

The first reported sighting of Tasmania by a European was on November 24th 1642 by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman who named the island Anthoonij van Diemenslandt, after his sponsor, the Governor of the Dutch East Indies. The name was later shortened to Van Diemens Land by the British. Captain James Cook also sighted the island in 1777, and numerous other European seafarers made landfalls, adding a colourful array to the names of topographical features.

The first settlement was by the British at Risdon Cove on the eastern bank of the Derwent estuary in 1803, by a small party sent from Sydney, under Lt. John Bowen. An alternative settlement was established by Capt. David Collins 5 km to the south in 1804 in Sullivan's Cove on the western side of the Derwent, where fresh water was more plentiful. The latter settlement became known as Hobart Town or Hobarton, later shortened to Hobart, after the British Colonial Secretary of the time, Lord Hobart. The settlement at Risdon was later abandoned.

The early settlers were mostly convicts and their military guards, with the task of developing agriculture and other industries. Numerous other convict-based settlements were made in Van Diemens Land, including secondary prisons, such as the particularly harsh penal colonies at Port Arthur in the south-east and Macquarie Harbour on the West Coast.

Following the incident known as the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848 in August 1848, the Irish Nationalist leaders Thomas Francis Meagher, Terence MacManus, Smith O'Brien, Patrick O'Donohoe, Kevin O'Doherty and John Martin were deported to Tasmania. They accepted the "ticket-of-leave" giving their word not to attempt to escape in return for comparative liberty on the island (some of them eventually escaped nevertheless) and were sent to different parts of Tasmania where their cottages still stand:

Meagher was sent to Campbell Town and shortly after to Ross, MacManus to Launceston and later near New Norfolk (his still existent lodging was "The Grange"), Kevin O'Doherty to Oatlands (stone cottage), John Mitchel and John Martin to Bothwell ("Nant Cottage"), Smith O'Brien (who initially refused a ticket-of-leave) to the "Penal Station" on Maria Island and later to New Norfolk.

Van Diemens Land was proclaimed a separate colony from New South Wales, with its own judicial establishment and Legislative Council, on December 3, 1825.

World attention

Although the state is seldom in the world news, global attention turned to Tasmania on April 29 1996 when lone gunman Martin Bryant opened fire, killing 35 tourists and residents and injuring 37 others in an incident now known as the Port Arthur Massacre.

Recently it has also received attention with the 2004 wedding of former Hobart woman Mary Donaldson to Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, on May 14, 2004.

Global attention turned to Tasmania again in 2006, after a mine collapsed in Beaconsfield trapping two miners and tragically killing one.

Further information

Timeline

pre 1800

1800-1819

History of Tasmania:Proclamation issued in 1816 to promote friendship between Aborigines and whites, though it had little effect
Enlarge
Proclamation issued in 1816 to promote friendship between Aborigines and whites, though it had little effect

1820-1839

1840-1859

1860-1879

1880-1899

1900-1919

1920-1939

1940-1959

1960-1979

1980-1999

2000 to present

Categories


Articles lacking sources from November 2006 | All articles lacking sources | History of Tasmania

Find

Find

Find