History of Tasmania

The history of Tasmania begins at the end of the Last Glacial Period (approximately 12,000 years ago) when it is believed that the island was joined to the Australian mainland.

Historian Lyndall Ryan's analysis of population studies led her to conclude that there were about 7000 spread throughout the island's nine nations;[1] Nicholas Clements, citing research by N.J.B.

[2] The combination of the so-called Black War, internecine conflict and, from the late 1820s, the spread of infectious diseases to which they had no immunity,[3] reduced the population to about 300 by 1833.

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.

Numerous other convict 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.

The following year marked the arrival of the first Catholic clergyman, Father Phillip Conolly; and on his second visit, Governor Lachlan Macquarie chose sites for Perth, Campbell Town, Ross, Oatlands, Sorell and Brighton.

A proclamation made in 1828 by Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur excluded Aboriginal people from settled areas and was the year of the Cape Grim massacre.

The following year a jail for women convicts ("female factory") opened at Cascades; "Protector" George Augustus Robinson started an Aboriginal mission at Bruny Island, convicts seized the brig Cyprus at Recherche Bay and sailed to China; Van Diemen's Land Scientific Society was formed under patronage of Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur; and a Hobart-New Norfolk coach service began.

Seventeenth century map of Tasmania, showing the parts seen by Tasman.
Melchisedech Thevenot (1620?–1692): Map of New Holland 1644, based on a map by the Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu.
Group of natives of Tasmania
Hobart Town chain gang
Proclamation issued in 1816 to promote friendship between Aboriginal and white people, though it had little effect
A map of Tasmania from 1837.
Horace Watson recording the songs of Fanny Cochrane Smith , considered to be the last fluent speaker of a Tasmanian language, 1903.
A video by the ABC about the introduction of daylight saving time.