History of TasmaniaThe history of Tasmania spans over thousands of years. Initially joined to mainland Australia. It broke away from the mainland continent at the end of the last ice age about ten thousand years ago. It was inhabited by Tasmania's aborigines for thousands of years before it was discovered by Europeans. Tasmania was first settled as convict settlement named Vand Diemens land.
AboriginesTasmania was first inhabited by the Aborigines about 35 000 years ago. These peoples were seperated from mainland Australia by rising sea levels at the end of the ice age about 10 000 years ago. There nine main ethnic groups of Aborigines that occupied the island (see map below).The total Tasmanian Aboriginal population was estimated at between 5000 - 10 000 people at the time of European settlement in 1803. However due to persecution and disease from the white settlers the population dwindled to less than 300 by 1833. The entire Tasmanian Aboriginal population was then moved to Flinders Island where the population sadly continued to decrease. The last remaining full-blooded Tasmanian Aborigine is generally agreed to be Truganini who died in 1876.
European SettlementThe european history of Tasmania is relatively recent. Tasmania was first discovered by a Dutch explorer called Abel Tasman in 1642. He named the island Anthoonij van Diemenslandt, after his sponsor, the Governor of the Dutch East Indies Anthony van Diemen. This was initially how Tasmania came to be known as Van Diemens Land.The first settlement was made by the British at Risdon Cove in 1803 when a small party sent from the colony of Sydney were sent to stop the French from claiming the island. A second settlement was established shortly afterwards 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 australian history of the settlers involved in the colonization of Tasmania 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 southeast and Macquarie Harbour on the West Coast. Van Diemens Land was proclaimed a separate colony from New South Wales, with its own judicial establishment and Legislative Council in 1825.
|
