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) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in Australia
Coordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_date =
Colony of Tasmania The Colony of Tasmania (more commonly referred to simply as "Tasmania") was a British colony that existed on the island of Tasmania from 1856 until 1901, when it federated together with the five other Australian colonies to form the Commonwealt ...
, established_title2 =
Federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...
, established_date2 = 1 January 1901 , named_for =
Abel Tasman Abel Janszoon Tasman (; 160310 October 1659) was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was the first known European explorer to reach New Z ...
, demonym = , capital =
Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
, largest_city = capital , coordinates = , admin_center = 29 local government areas , admin_center_type = Administration , leader_title1 =
Monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...
, leader_name1 =
Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...
, leader_title2 =
Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
, leader_name2 = Barbara Baker , leader_title3 =
Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...
, leader_name3 =
Jeremy Rockliff Jeremy Page Rockliff (born 5 February 1970) is an Australian politician who has been serving as the 47th Premier of Tasmania since April 2022, after the resignation of Peter Gutwein as Premier. He has been a Liberal Party of Australia (Tasmanian ...
(
Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...
) , national_representation =
Parliament of Australia The Parliament of Australia (officially the Federal Parliament, also called the Commonwealth Parliament) is the legislature, legislative branch of the government of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch (represented by the ...
, national_representation_type1 =
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
, national_representation1 = 12 senators (of 76) , national_representation_type2 =
House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
, national_representation2 = 5 seats (of 151) , legislature =
Parliament of Tasmania The Parliament of Tasmania is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Tasmania. It follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system and consists of the Governor of Tasmania, the Tasmanian House of Assembly (the lower house), and T ...
, upper_house = Legislative Council , lower_house =
House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...
, judiciary =
Supreme Court of Tasmania The Supreme Court of Tasmania is the highest State court in the Australian State of Tasmania. In the Australian court hierarchy, the Supreme Court of Tasmania is in the middle level, with both an appellate jurisdiction over lower courts, and de ...
, area_km2 = 90758 , area_land_km2 = 68401 , area_water_km2 = 22357 , area_rank = 7th , area_rank_link = States and territories of Australia#Statistics , elevation_max_m = 1617 , elevation_max_point = Mount Ossa , population_estimate = 571,165 , population_estimate_rank = 6th , population_rank_link = States and territories of Australia#Statistics , population_estimate_year = March 2022 , population_density_km2 = 8.3 , population_density_sq_mi = , population_density_rank = 4th , population_density_rank_link = States and territories of Australia#Statistics , GDP_nominal = AU$32.102 billion , GDP_nominal_type = GSP , GDP_nominal_year = 2020 , GDP_nominal_rank = 8th , GDP_nominal_rank_link = List of Australian states and territories by gross state product , GDP_nominal_per_capita = AU$59,779 , GDP_nominal_per_capita_rank = 7th , GDP_nominal_per_capita_rank_link = List of Australian states and territories by gross state product , Gini = 44.8 , Gini_year = 2016 , Gini_change = IncreaseNegative , Gini_ref = , Gini_rank = 3rd , HDI = 0.914 , HDI_year = 2019 , HDI_change = increase , HDI_ref = , HDI_rank = 8th , HDI_rank_link = List of Australian states and territories by Human Development Index , timezone =
AEST Australia uses three main time zones: Australian Western Standard Time (AWST; UTC+08:00), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST; UTC+09:30), and Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST; UTC+10:00). Time is regulated by the individual state gov ...
, utc_offset = +10:00 , timezone_DST =
AEDT Australia uses three main time zones: Australian Western Standard Time (AWST; UTC+08:00), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST; UTC+09:30), and Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST; UTC+10:00). Time is regulated by the individual state ...
, utc_offset_DST = +11:00 , calling_code = , postal_code_type = Postal abbreviation , postal_code = TAS , website = , iso_code = AU-TAS Tasmania (;
Palawa kani Palawa kani is a constructed language created by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre as a composite Tasmanian languages, Tasmanian language, based on reconstructed vocabulary from the limited accounts of the various languages once spoken by the eas ...
: lutruwita) is an island
state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...
of
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. It is located 240 kilometres (150 miles) to the south of the
Australian mainland Mainland Australia is the main landmass of the Australian continent, excluding the Aru Islands, New Guinea, Tasmania, and other Australian offshore islands. The landmass also constitutes the mainland of the territory governed by the Commonwealt ...
, separated from it by the
Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...
, with the archipelago containing the southernmost point of the country. The state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th-largest island in the world, and the surrounding 1000 islands. It is Australia's least populous state, with 569,825 residents . The
state capital Below is an index of pages containing lists of capital cities. National capitals *List of national capitals *List of national capitals by latitude *List of national capitals by population *List of national capitals by area *List of capital citie ...
and largest city is
Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
, with around 40 percent of the population living in the Greater Hobart area. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2017. Tasmania's main island was inhabited by
Aboriginal peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
for up to 40,000 years before British colonization. It is thought that
Aboriginal Tasmanians The Aboriginal Tasmanians (Palawa kani: ''Palawa'' or ''Pakana'') are the Aboriginal people of the Australian island of Tasmania, located south of the mainland. For much of the 20th century, the Tasmanian Aboriginal people were widely, and ...
became separated from the mainland Aboriginal groups about 11,700 years ago, after rising sea levels formed
Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...
. The island was permanently settled by Europeans in 1803 as a
penal settlement A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer to ...
of the
British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
to prevent claims to the land by the
First French Empire The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, then the French Empire (; Latin: ) after 1809, also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Eu ...
during the
Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
. The Aboriginal population is estimated to have been between 3,000 and 7,000 at the time of British settlement, but was almost wiped out within 30 years during a period of conflicts with settlers known as the "
Black War } The Black War was a period of violent conflict between British Empire, British colonists and Aboriginal Tasmanians in Tasmania from the mid-1820s to 1832. The conflict, fought largely as a guerrilla war by both sides, claimed the lives of 600 ...
" and the spread of
infectious disease An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dise ...
s. The conflict, which peaked between 1825 and 1831 and led to more than three years of martial law, cost the lives of almost 1,100 Aboriginal people and settlers. Under British rule the island was initially part of the
Colony of New South Wales The Colony of New South Wales was a colony of the British Empire from 1788 to 1901, when it became a State of the Commonwealth of Australia. At its greatest extent, the colony of New South Wales included the present-day Australian states of New ...
but became a separate colony under the name
Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sepa ...
(named after
Anthony van Diemen Anthony van Diemen (also ''Antonie'', ''Antonio'', ''Anton'', ''Antonius'') (1593 – 19 April 1645) was a Dutch colonial governor. Early life He was born in Culemborg in the Netherlands, the son of Meeus Anthonisz van Diemen and Christina Hoe ...
) in 1825. Approximately 80,000
convicts A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convict ...
were sent to Van Diemen's Land before this practice, known as
transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...
, ceased in 1853. In 1855 the present Constitution of Tasmania was enacted, and the following year the colony formally changed its name to Tasmania. In 1901 it became a
state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...
of Australia through the process of the
federation of Australia The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia (which also governed what is now the Northern Territory), and Western A ...
. Today, Tasmania has the second smallest economy of the Australian states and territories, which is significantly formed of tourism, agriculture and aquaculture, education and healthcare. Tasmania is a significant agricultural exporter, as well as a significant destination for eco-tourism. About 42 percent of its land area, including
national parks A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...
and
World Heritage Sites A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNES ...
(21%) is protected in some form of reserve. The first environmental political party in the world was founded in Tasmania.


Toponymy

Tasmania is named after
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...
Abel Tasman Abel Janszoon Tasman (; 160310 October 1659) was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was the first known European explorer to reach New Z ...
, who made the first reported European sighting of the island on 24 November 1642. Tasman named the island Anthony van Diemen's Land after his sponsor
Anthony van Diemen Anthony van Diemen (also ''Antonie'', ''Antonio'', ''Anton'', ''Antonius'') (1593 – 19 April 1645) was a Dutch colonial governor. Early life He was born in Culemborg in the Netherlands, the son of Meeus Anthonisz van Diemen and Christina Hoe ...
, the Governor of the
Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
. The name was later shortened to Van Diemen's Land by the British. It was officially renamed Tasmania in honour of its first European discoverer on 1 January 1856. Tasmania was sometimes referred to as "Dervon", as mentioned in the
Jerilderie Letter The handwritten document known as the Jerilderie Letter was dictated by Australian bushranger Ned Kelly to fellow Kelly Gang member Joe Byrne in 1879. It is one of only two original Kelly letters known to have survived. The Jerilderie Letter is ...
written by the notorious Australian
bushranger Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who used the bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up "robbery under ...
Ned Kelly Edward Kelly (December 1854 – 11 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armour during his final shootout wi ...
in 1879. The colloquial expression for the state is "Tassie". Tasmania is also colloquially shortened to "Tas", mainly when used in business names and website addresses. TAS is also the Australia Post abbreviation for the state. In the reconstructed
Palawa kani Palawa kani is a constructed language created by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre as a composite Tasmanian languages, Tasmanian language, based on reconstructed vocabulary from the limited accounts of the various languages once spoken by the eas ...
language, the main island of Tasmania is called lutruwita, a name originally derived from the
Bruny Island Tasmanian language Bruny Island Tasmanian, or Nuenonne ("Nyunoni"), a name shared with Southeast Tasmanian, is an Aboriginal language or pair of languages of Tasmania in the reconstruction of Claire Bowern.Claire Bowern, September 2012, "The riddle of Tasmanian ...
.
George Augustus Robinson George Augustus Robinson (22 March 1791 – 18 October 1866) was a British-born colonial official and self-trained preacher in colonial Australia. In 1824, Robinson travelled to Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land, where he attempted to negotiate ...
recorded it as ''Loe.trou.witter'' and also as ''Trow.wer.nar'', probably from one or more of the
eastern Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...
or
Northeastern Tasmanian languages Northeastern Tasmanian is an aboriginal language family of Tasmania in the reconstruction of Claire Bowern.Claire Bowern, September 2012, "The riddle of Tasmanian languages", ''Proc. R. Soc. B'', 279, 4590–4595, Languages Bayesian phyloge ...
. However, he also recorded it as a name for
Cape Barren Island Cape Barren Island, officially truwana / Cape Barren Island, is a island in the Bass Strait, off the north east coast of Tasmania, Australia. It is the second largest island of the Furneaux Group; Flinders Island lies to the north, with the s ...
. In the 20th century, some writers used it as an Aboriginal name for Tasmania, spelled "Trowenna" or "Trowunna". It is now believed that the name is more properly applied to Cape Barren Island, which has had an official
dual name Dual naming is the adoption of an official place name that combines two earlier names, or uses both names, often to resolve a disagreement over which of the two individual names is more appropriate. In some cases, the reasons are political. Some ...
of "Truwana" since 2014. A number of
Palawa kani Palawa kani is a constructed language created by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre as a composite Tasmanian languages, Tasmanian language, based on reconstructed vocabulary from the limited accounts of the various languages once spoken by the eas ...
names, based on historical records of aboriginal names, have been accepted by the Tasmanian government. A dozen of these (below) are 'dual-use' (bilingual) names, and another two are unbounded areas with only Palawa names. ;Bilingual names ;Palawa names * larapuna: an unbounded area centered on the
Bay of Fires The Bay of Fires (palawa kani: ''larapuna)'' is a bay on the northeastern coast of Tasmania in Australia, extending from Binalong Bay to Eddystone Point. The bay was given its name in 1773 by Captain Tobias Furneaux in , who saw the fires of ...
*
Narawntapu National Park Narawntapu National Park (formerly known as Asbestos Range National Park) is a national park in the Australian state of Tasmania. It lies on Tasmania's north coast, adjoining Bass Strait, between Port Sorell in the west and the mouth of the Tam ...
(formerly Asbestos Range National Park) * putalina: an unbounded area centered on Oyster Cove (including the community of Oyster Cove) There are also a number of archaeological sites with Palawa names. Some of these names have been contentious, with names being proposed without consultation with the aboriginal community, or without having a connection to the place in question. As well as a diverse First Nations geography, where remnants are preserved in rough form by European documentation, Tasmania is known as a place for unorthodox place-names. These names often come about from lost definitions, where descriptive names have lost their old meanings and have taken on new modern interpretations (e.g. 'Bobs Knobs'). Other names have retained their original meaning, and are often quaint or endearing descriptions (e.g. 'Paradise').


History


Physical history

The island was adjoined to the mainland of Australia until the end of the last glacial period about 11,700 years ago. Much of the island is composed of
Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...
dolerite Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro, is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grained ...
intrusions (the upwelling of
magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natural sa ...
) through other rock types, sometimes forming large columnar joints. Tasmania has the world's largest areas of dolerite, with many distinctive mountains and cliffs formed from this rock type. The central plateau and the southeast portions of the island are mostly dolerites. Mount Wellington above
Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
is a good example, showing distinct columns known as the Organ Pipes. In the southern midlands as far south as Hobart, the dolerite is underlaid by
sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
and similar sedimentary stones. In the southwest,
Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pêž’, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...
quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...
s were formed from very ancient sea sediments and form strikingly sharp ridges and ranges, such as Federation Peak or
Frenchmans Cap Frenchmans Cap is a mountain in the West Coast region of Tasmania, Australia. The mountain is situated in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park. At above sea level, it is within the top thirty highest mountains in Tasmania. Location ...
. In the northeast and east, continental
granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
s can be seen, such as at Freycinet, similar to coastal granites on mainland Australia. In the northwest and west, mineral-rich volcanic rock can be seen at Mount Read near Rosebery, or at Mount Lyell near Queenstown. Also present in the south and northwest is
limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
with caves. The quartzite and dolerite areas in the higher mountains show evidence of
glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...
, and much of Australia's glaciated landscape is found on the Central Plateau and the Southwest.
Cradle Mountain Cradle Mountain is a locality and mountain in the Central Highlands region of the Australian state of Tasmania. The mountain is situated in the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. At above sea level, it is the sixth-highest mountai ...
, another dolerite peak, for example, was a
nunatak A nunatak (from Inuit ''nunataq'') is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They are also called glacial islands. Examples are natural pyramidal peaks. ...
. The combination of these different rock types contributes to scenery which is distinct from any other region of the world. In the far southwest corner of the state, the geology is almost wholly quartzite, which gives the mountains the false impression of having snow-capped peaks year round.


Aboriginal people

Evidence indicates the presence of
Aboriginal people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
in Tasmania about 42,000 years ago.
Rising sea levels Rising may refer to: * Rising, a stage in baking - see Proofing (baking technique) *Elevation * Short for Uprising, a rebellion Film and TV * "Rising" (''Stargate Atlantis''), the series premiere of the science fiction television program ''Starga ...
cut Tasmania off from mainland Australia about 10,000 years ago and by the time of European contact, the Aboriginal people in Tasmania had nine major nations or ethnic groups. At the time of the British occupation and colonisation in 1803, the indigenous population was estimated at between 3,000 and 10,000. Historian Lyndall Ryan's analysis of population studies led her to conclude that there were about 7,000 spread throughout the island's nine nations; Nicholas Clements, citing research by N.J.B. Plomley and Rhys Jones, settled on a figure of 3,000 to 4,000. They engaged in
fire-stick farming Fire-stick farming, also known as cultural burning and cool burning, is the practice of Aboriginal Australians regularly using fire to burn vegetation, which has been practised for thousands of years. There are a number of purposes for doing this ...
, hunted game including
kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...
and
wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...
, caught seals, mutton-birds, shellfish and fish and lived as nine separate "nations" on the island, which they knew as "Trouwunna".


European arrival and governance

The first reported sighting of Tasmania by a
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an was on 24 November 1642 by Dutch explorer
Abel Tasman Abel Janszoon Tasman (; 160310 October 1659) was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was the first known European explorer to reach New Z ...
, who landed at today's
Blackman Bay Blackman Bay is located on the south-east coast of Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoo ...
. More than a century later, in 1772, a French expedition led by
Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne (22 May 1724 – 12 June 1772) was a French privateer, East India captain and explorer. The expedition he led to find the hypothetical ''Terra Australis'' in 1771 made important geographic discoveries in the south ...
landed at (nearby but different)
Blackmans Bay Blackmans Bay is a coastal suburb of Tasmania, Australia, part of the Kingston-Blackmans Bay urban area and a satellite town of Greater Hobart. Etymology Blackmans Bay was named after a James Blackman who occupied land there in the 1820s. A ...
, and the following year
Tobias Furneaux Captain Tobias Furneaux (21 August 173518 September 1781) was an English navigator and Royal Navy officer, who accompanied James Cook on his second voyage of exploration. He was one of the first men to circumnavigate the world in both direction ...
became the first Englishman to land in Tasmania when he arrived at Adventure Bay, which he named after his ship HMS ''Adventure''. Captain
James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...
also landed at Adventure Bay in 1777.
Matthew Flinders Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to u ...
and
George Bass George Bass (; 30 January 1771 – after 5 February 1803) was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia. Early years Bass was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, George ...
sailed through
Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...
in 17981799, determining for the first time that Tasmania was an island. Sealers and whalers based themselves on Tasmania's islands from 1798, and in August 1803
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
Governor Philip King sent Lieutenant John Bowen to establish a small military outpost on the eastern shore of the Derwent River in order to forestall any claims to the island by French explorers who had been exploring the southern Australian coastline. Bowen, who led a party of 49, including 21 male and three female convicts, named the camp Risdon. Several months later a second settlement was established by Captain
David Collins David Collins may refer to: Persons * David Collins (Hampshire cricketer), 18th-century cricketer * David Collins (New Zealand cricketer) (1887–1967) * David Collins (Scottish footballer) (1912–?) * David Collins (Australian footballer) ( ...
, with 308 convicts, to the south in
Sullivans Cove Sullivans Cove is on the River Derwent adjacent to the Hobart City Centre in Tasmania. It was the site of initial European settlement in the area, and the location of the earlier components of the Port of Hobart. History The cove was the init ...
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 Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
, after the British Colonial Secretary of the time,
Lord Hobart Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire, (6 May 17604 February 1816), styled Lord Hobart from 1793 to 1804, was a British Tory politician. Life Buckinghamshire was born at Hampden House, the son of George Hobart, 3rd Earl of Buckinghamshire ...
. The settlement at Risdon was later abandoned. Left on their own without further supplies, the Sullivans Cove settlement suffered severe food shortages and by 1806 its inhabitants were starving, with many resorting to scraping seaweed off rocks and scavenging washed-up whale blubber from the shore to survive. A smaller colony was established at Port Dalrymple on the Tamar River in the island's north in October 1804 and several other convict-based settlements were established, including the particularly harsh penal colonies at Port Arthur in the southeast and
Macquarie Harbour Macquarie Harbour is a shallow fjord in the West Coast region of Tasmania, Australia. It is approximately , and has an average depth of , with deeper places up to . It is navigable by shallow-draft vessels. The main channel is kept clear by the ...
on the West Coast. Tasmania was eventually sent 75,000 convicts—four out of every ten people transported to Australia. By 1819 the Aboriginal and British population reached parity with about 5000 of each, although among the colonists men outnumbered women four-to-one. Free settlers began arriving in large numbers from 1820, lured by the promise of land grants and free convict labour. Settlement in the island's northwest corner was monopolised by the
Van Diemen's Land Company The Van Diemen's Land Company (also known as Van Dieman Land Company) is a farming corporation in the Australian state of Tasmania. It was founded in 1825 and received a royal charter the same year, and was granted 250,000 acres (1,000 km2) ...
, which sent its first surveyors to the district in 1826. By 1830 one-third of Australia's non-Indigenous population lived in Van Diemen's Land and the island accounted for about half of all land under cultivation and exports.


Black War

Tensions between Tasmania's Aboriginal and white inhabitants rose, partly driven by increasing competition for kangaroo and other game. Explorer and naval officer
John Oxley John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley (1784 – 25 May 1828) was an explorer and surveyor of Australia in the early period of British colonisation. He served as Surveyor General of New South Wales and is perhaps best known for his two exp ...
in 1810 noted the "many atrocious cruelties" inflicted on Aboriginal people by convict
bushranger Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who used the bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up "robbery under ...
s in the north, which in turn led to black attacks on solitary white hunters. Hostilities increased further with the arrival of 600 colonists from
Norfolk Island Norfolk Island (, ; Norfuk: ''Norf'k Ailen'') is an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head and about from Lord Howe Island. Together with ...
between 1807 and 1813. They established farms along the River Derwent and east and west of Launceston, occupying ten percent of Van Diemen's Land. By 1824 the colonial population had swelled to 12,600, while the island's sheep population had reached 200,000. The rapid colonisation transformed traditional kangaroo hunting grounds into farms with grazing livestock as well as fences, hedges and stone walls, while police and military patrols were increased to control the convict farm labourers. Violence began to spiral rapidly from the mid-1820s in what became described as the "
Black War } The Black War was a period of violent conflict between British Empire, British colonists and Aboriginal Tasmanians in Tasmania from the mid-1820s to 1832. The conflict, fought largely as a guerrilla war by both sides, claimed the lives of 600 ...
". Aboriginal inhabitants were driven to desperation by hunger - that included a desire for agricultural produce, as well as feeling anger at the prevalence of abductions of women and girls. New settlers motivated by fear carried out self-defence operations as well as attacks as a means of suppressing the native threat - or even in some cases, exacting revenge. Van Diemen's Land had an enormous gender imbalance, with male colonists outnumbering females six to one in 1822and 16 to one among the convict population. Historian Nicholas Clements has suggested the "voracious appetite" for native women was the most important trigger for the explosion of violence from the late 1820s. From 1825 to 1828 the number of native attacks more than doubled each year, raising panic among settlers. Over the summer of 18261827 clans from the Big River, Oyster Bay and North Midlands nations speared stock-keepers on farms and made it clear that they wanted the settlers and their sheep and cattle to move from their kangaroo hunting grounds. Settlers responded vigorously, resulting in many mass-killings. In November 1826 Governor Sir George Arthur issued a government notice declaring that colonists were free to kill Aboriginal people when they attacked settlers or their property and in the following eight months more than 200 Aboriginal people were killed in the Settled Districts in reprisal for the deaths of 15 colonists. After another eight months the death toll had risen to 43 colonists and probably 350 Aboriginal people. In April 1828, Arthur issued a Proclamation of Demarcation forbidding Aboriginal people to enter the settled districts without a passport issued by the government. Arthur declared
martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...
in the colony in November that year, and this remained in force for over three years, the longest period of martial law in Australian history. In November 1830 Arthur organised the so-called "
Black Line } The Black War was a period of violent conflict between British Empire, British colonists and Aboriginal Tasmanians in Tasmania from the mid-1820s to 1832. The conflict, fought largely as a guerrilla war by both sides, claimed the lives of 600 ...
", ordering every able-bodied male colonist to assemble at one of seven designated places in the Settled Districts to join a massive drive to sweep Aboriginal people out of the region and on to the
Tasman Peninsula The Tasman Peninsula, officially Turrakana / Tasman Peninsula, is a peninsula located in south-east Tasmania, Australia, approximately by the Arthur Highway, south-east of Hobart. The Tasman Peninsula lies south and west of Forestier Peninsula ...
. The campaign failed and was abandoned seven weeks later, but by then Tasmania's Aboriginal population had fallen to about 300.


Removal of Aboriginal people

After hostilities between settlers and Aboriginal peoples ceased in 1832, almost all of the remnants of the Indigenous population were persuaded or forced by government agent
George Augustus Robinson George Augustus Robinson (22 March 1791 – 18 October 1866) was a British-born colonial official and self-trained preacher in colonial Australia. In 1824, Robinson travelled to Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land, where he attempted to negotiate ...
to move to
Flinders Island Flinders Island, the largest island in the Furneaux Group, is a island in the Bass Strait, northeast of the island of Tasmania. Flinders Island was the place where the last remnants of aboriginal Tasmanian population were exiled by the colon ...
. Many quickly succumbed to infectious diseases to which they had no immunity, reducing the population further. Of those removed from Tasmania, the last to die was
Truganini Truganini (also known as Lallah Rookh; c. 1812 – 8 May 1876) was an Aboriginal Tasmanian woman. She was one of the last native speakers of the Tasmanian languages and one of the last individuals solely of Aboriginal Tasmanian descent. Trug ...
, in 1876. The near-destruction of Tasmania's Aboriginal population has been described as an act of genocide by historians including Robert Hughes, James Boyce,
Lyndall Ryan Lyndall Ryan, (born 1943) is an Australian academic and historian. She has held positions in Australian Studies and Women's Studies at Griffith University and Flinders University and was Foundation Professor of Australian Studies and Head of Sc ...
and Tom Lawson. However, other historians including Henry Reynolds,
Richard Broome Richard Laurence Broome, (born 1 October 1948) is an Australian historian, academic, and emeritus professor of history at La Trobe University, Melbourne. He is known as an authority on Aboriginal history in Australia. In 2007 Broome's book ''Ab ...
and Nicholas Clements do not agree with the genocide thesis, arguing that the colonial authorities did not intend to destroy the Aboriginal population in whole or in part.Clements, Nicholas (2013). pp. 110–12 Boyce has claimed that the April 1828 "Proclamation Separating the Aborigines from the White Inhabitants" sanctioned force against Aboriginal people "for no other reason than that they were Aboriginal". However, as Reynolds, Broome and Clements point out, there was open warfare at the time. Boyce described the decision to remove all Tasmanian Aboriginal people after 1832by which time they had given up their fight against white colonistsas an extreme policy position. He concluded: "The colonial government from 1832 to 1838 ethnically cleansed the western half of Van Diemen's Land." Nevertheless, Clements and Flood note that there was another wave of violence in north-west Tasmania in 1841, involving attacks on settlers' huts by a band of Aboriginal Tasmanians who had not been removed from the island.


Proclamation as a colony

Van Diemen's Landwhich thus far had existed as a territory within the colony of
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
was proclaimed a separate colony, with its own judicial establishment and Legislative Council, on 3 December 1825. Transportation to the island ceased in 1853 and the colony was renamed Tasmania in 1856, partly to differentiate the burgeoning society of free settlers from the island's convict past. The Legislative Council of Van Diemen's Land drafted a new constitution which gained Royal Assent in 1855. The
Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
also approved the colony changing its name from "Van Diemen's Land" to "Tasmania", and in 1856 the newly elected
bicameral parliament Bicameralism is a type of legislature, one divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single grou ...
sat for the first time, establishing Tasmania as a
self-governing __NOTOC__ Self-governance, self-government, or self-rule is the ability of a person or group to exercise all necessary functions of regulation without intervention from an external authority. It may refer to personal conduct or to any form of ...
colony of the British Empire. The colony suffered from economic fluctuations, but for the most part was prosperous, experiencing steady growth. With few external threats and strong trade links with the Empire, Tasmania enjoyed many fruitful periods in the late 19th century, becoming a world-centre of shipbuilding. It raised a local defence force that eventually played a significant role in the
Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...
in South Africa, and Tasmanian soldiers in that conflict won the first two
Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...
es awarded to Australians.


Federation

In 1901 the Colony of Tasmania
united United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...
with the five other Australian colonies to form the Commonwealth of Australia. Tasmanians voted in favour of federation with the largest majority of all the Australian colonies.


20th and 21st century

Tasmania was the first place in the southern hemisphere to have electric lights, starting with Launceston in 1885 and Zeehan in 1900. The state economy was riding mining prosperity until World War I. In 1901, the state population was 172,475. The 1910 foundation of what would become
Hydro Tasmania Hydro Tasmania, known for most of its history as the Hydro-Electric Commission (HEC) or The Hydro, is the trading name of the Hydro-Electric Corporation, a Tasmanian Government business enterprise which is the predominant electricity generator i ...
began to shape urban patterns, as well as future major damming programs. Hydro's influence culminated in the 1970s when the state government announced plans to flood environmentally significant
Lake Pedder Lake Pedder, once a glacial outwash lake, is a man-made impoundment and diversion lake located in the southwest of Tasmania, Australia. In addition to its natural catchment from the Frankland Range, the lake is formed by the 1972 damming of the ...
. As a result of the eventual flooding of Lake Pedder, the world's first green party was established; the
United Tasmania Group The United Tasmania Group (UTG) is generally acknowledged as the world's first Green party to contest elections. The party was formed on 23 March 1972, during a meeting of the Lake Pedder Action Committee (LPAC) at the Hobart Town Hall in order ...
. National and international attention surrounded the campaign against the
Franklin Dam The Franklin Dam or Gordon-below-Franklin Dam project was a proposed dam on the Gordon River in Tasmania, Australia, that was never constructed. The movement that eventually led to the project's cancellation became one of the most significant e ...
in the early 1980s. In 1943,
Enid Lyons Dame Enid Muriel Lyons (née Burnell; 9 July 1897 – 2 September 1981) was an Australian politician who was the first woman elected to the House of Representatives and the first woman to serve in federal cabinet. Prior to her own political ca ...
was elected the first female member of the Australian House of Representatives, winning the seat of Darwin. After the end of World War II, the state saw major urbanisation, and the growth of towns like Ulverstone. It gained a reputation as "Sanitorium of the South" and a health-focused tourist boom began to grow. The
MS Princess of Tasmania MS ''Princess of Tasmania'' was an Australian-built roll-on/roll-off passenger ship. She was built by the State Dockyard in Newcastle, New South Wales for the Australian National Line. Laid down on 15 November 1957, she was launched on 15 December ...
began her maiden voyage in 1959, the first car ferry to Tasmania. As part of the boom, Tasmania allowed the opening of the first casino in Australia in 1968 Queen
Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
visited the state in 1954, and the 50s and 60s were charactered by the opening of major public services, including the Tasmanian Housing Department and
Metro Tasmania Metro Tasmania, commonly called Metro, a Tasmanian Government business enterprise, is the largest bus operator in the state of Tasmania, Australia, with operations in three of the four largest urban centres of Hobart, , and . Urban services in ...
public bus services. A jail was opened at Risdon in 1960, and the
State Library of Tasmania The State Reference Library is the reference library in the state of Tasmania, Australia. It is part of Libraries Tasmania. Libraries Tasmania includes a state-wide network of library services, community learning, adult literacy and the State†...
the same year. The University of Tasmania also moved to its present location in 1963. The state was badly affected by the
1967 Tasmanian fires The 1967 Tasmanian fires were an Australian natural disaster which occurred on 7 February 1967, an event which came to be known as the Black Tuesday bushfires. They were the most deadly bushfires that Tasmania has ever experienced, leaving 62 pe ...
, killing 62 people and destroying over 652,000 acres in five hours. In 1975 the Tasman Bridge disaster, Tasman Bridge collapsed when the bridge was struck by the bulk ore carrier ''SS Lake Illawarra, Lake Illawarra''. It was the only bridge in Hobart, and made crossing the Derwent River (Tasmania), Derwent River by road at the city impossible. The nearest bridge was approximately to the north, at Bridgewater. Throughout the 1980s, strong environmental concerns saw the building of the Australian Antarctic Division headquarters, and the proclamation of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The Franklin Dam was blocked by the federal government in 1983, and CSIRO opened its marine studies center in Hobart. Pope John Paul II would hold mass at Elwick Racecourse in 1986. The 1990s were characterised by the fight for LGBT rights in Tasmania, culminating in the intervention of the United Nations Human Rights Committee in 1997 and the decriminalization of homosexuality that year. Christine Milne became the first female leader of a Tasmanian political party in 1993, and major council amalgamations reduce the number of councils from 46 to 29. On 28 April 1996, in the Port Arthur massacre (Australia), Port Arthur massacre, lone gunman Martin Bryant shot and killed 35 people (including tourists and residents) and injured 21 others. The use of firearms was immediately reviewed, and new gun ownership laws were adopted nationwide, with Tasmania's law one of the strictest in Australia. In 2000, Queen Elizabeth II once again visited the state. Gunns rose to prominence as a major forestry company during this decade, only to collapse in 2013. In 2004, Premier Jim Bacon (politician), Jim Bacon died in office from lung cancer. In January 2011 philanthropist David Walsh (art collector), David Walsh opened the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart to international acclaim. Within 12 months, MONA became Tasmania's top tourism attraction. The COVID-19 pandemic in Tasmania resulted in at least 230 cases and 13 deaths . In 2020, after the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease 2019, coronavirus pandemic (Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2) and its spread to Australia, the Tasmanian Government, Tasmanian government issued a public health emergency on 17 March, the following month receiving the state's most significant outbreak from the North West Tasmania, North-West which required assistance from the Australian Government, Federal government. In late 2021, Tasmania was leading the nationwide vaccination response.


Geography

Tasmania, the largest island of Australia, has a landmass of and is located directly in the pathway of the notorious "Roaring Forties" wind that encircles the globe. To its north, it is separated from mainland Australia by
Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...
. Tasmania is the only Australian state that is not located on the Australian mainland. About south of Tasmania island lies the George V Coast of Antarctica. Depending on which borders of the oceans are used, the island can be said to be either surrounded by the Southern Ocean, or to have the Pacific on its east and the Indian to its west. Still other definitions of the ocean boundaries would have Tasmania with the Great Australian Bight to the west, and the Tasman Sea to the east. The southernmost point on mainland Tasmania is approximately at South East Cape, and the northernmost point on mainland Tasmania is approximately in Woolnorth / Temdudheker, Tasmania, Woolnorth / Temdudheker near Cape Grim/Kennaook, Cape Grim / Kennaook. Tasmania lies at similar latitudes to South Island, Te Waipounamu / South Island of New Zealand, and parts of Patagonia in South America, and relative to the Northern Hemisphere, it lies at similar latitudes to Hokkaido in Japan, Northeast China (Manchuria), the north Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean in Europe, and the Canada-United States border. The most mountainous region is the Central Highlands (Tasmania), Central Highlands area, which covers most of the central western parts of the state. The Midlands (Tasmania), Midlands located in the central east, is fairly flat, and is predominantly used for agriculture, although farming activity is scattered throughout the state. Tasmania's tallest mountain is Mount Ossa at . Much of Tasmania is still densely forested, with the Southwest National Park and neighbouring areas holding some of the last temperate rain forests in the Southern Hemisphere. The Tarkine, containing Savage River National Park located in the island's far north west, is the largest temperate rainforest area in Australia covering about . With its rugged topography, Tasmania has a great number of rivers. Several of Tasmania's largest rivers have been dammed at some point to provide hydroelectricity. Many rivers begin in the Central Highlands and flow out to the coast. Tasmania's major population centres are mainly situated around estuaries (some of which are named rivers). Tasmania is in the shape of a downward-facing triangle, likened to a shield, heart, or face. It consists of the main island as well as at least a thousand neighbouring islands within the state's jurisdiction. The largest of these are Flinders Island in the Furneaux Group of
Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...
, King Island (Tasmania), King Island in the west of Bass Strait,
Cape Barren Island Cape Barren Island, officially truwana / Cape Barren Island, is a island in the Bass Strait, off the north east coast of Tasmania, Australia. It is the second largest island of the Furneaux Group; Flinders Island lies to the north, with the s ...
south of Flinders Island, Bruny Island separated from Tasmania by the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, Macquarie Island 1,500 km from Tasmania, and Maria Island off the east coast. Tasmania features a number of separated and continuous mountain ranges. The majority of the state is defined by a significant
dolerite Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro, is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grained ...
exposure, though the Western Tasmania, western half of the state is older and more rugged, featuring buttongrass plains, temperate rainforests, and
quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...
ranges, notably Federation Peak and Frenchmans Cap. The presence of these mountain ranges is a primary factor in the Rain shadow, rain shadow effect, where the western half receives the majority of rainfall, which also influences the types of vegetation that can grow. The Central Highlands feature a large plateau which forms a number of ranges and escarpments on its north side, tapering off along the south, and radiating into the highest mountain ranges in the west. At the north-west of this, another plateau radiates into a system of hills where Tarkine, takayna / Tarkine is located. The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) divides Tasmania into 9 bioregions: Ben Lomond bioregion, Ben Lomond, Furneaux bioregion, Furneaux, King bioregion, King, Tasmanian Central Highlands, Central Highlands, Tasmanian Northern Midlands, Northern Midlands, Tasmanian Northern Slopes, Northern Slopes, Tasmanian Southern Ranges, Southern Ranges, Tasmanian South East, South East, and Tasmanian West, West. Tasmania's environment consistes of many different biomes or communities across its different regions. It is the most forested state in Australia, and preserves the country's largest areas of temperate rainforest. A distinctive type of moorland found across the west, and particularly south-west of Tasmania, are buttongrass plains, which are speculated to have been expanded by Tasmanian Aboriginal Fire-stick farming, burning practices. Tasmania also features a diverse Alpine plant, alpine garden Alpine vegetation of Tasmania, environment, such as Tasmanian cushion plants, cushion plant. Highland areas receive consistent snowfall above ~1,000 metres every year, and due to cold air from Antarctica, this level often reaches 800 m, and more occasionally 600 or 400 metres. Every five or so years, snow can form at sea level. This environment gives rise to the cypress forests of the Central Highlands (Tasmania), Central Plateau and mountainous highlands. In particular, the Walls of Jerusalem National Park, Walls of Jerusalem with large areas of rare Athrotaxis cupressoides, pencil pine, and its closest relative Athrotaxis selaginoides, King Billy pine. On the West Coast Range and partially on Mount Field National Park, Mount Field, Australia's only winter-deciduous plant, Nothofagus gunnii, deciduous beech is found, which forms a carpet or krummholz, or very rarely a 4-metre tree. Tasmania features a high concentration of waterfalls. These can be found in small creeks, alpine streams, Rapids, rapid rivers, or off precipitous plunges. Some of the tallest waterfalls are found on mountain massifs, sometimes at a 200-metre cascade. The most famous and most visited waterfall in Tasmania is Russell Falls in Mount Field National Park, Mount Field due to its proximity to
Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
and stepped falls at a total height of 58 metres. Tasmania also has a large number of beaches, the longest of which is Ocean Beach (Tasmania), Ocean Beach on the West Coast, Tasmania, West Coast at about 40 kilometres. Wineglass Bay in Freycinet National Park, Freycinet on the east coast is a well-known landmark of the state. The Tasmanian temperate rainforests cover a few different types. These are also considered distinct from the more common wet sclerophyll forests, though these Eucalyptus, eucalypt forests often form with rainforest understorey and ferns (such as Man fern, tree-ferns) are usually never absent. Rainforest found in deep Gully, gullies are usually difficult to traverse due to dense understorey growth, such as from Anodopetalum biglandulosum, horizontal (''Anodopetalum biglandulosum''). Higher-elevation forests (~500 to 800 m) have smaller ground vegetation and are thus easier to walk in. The most common rainforests usually have a 50-metre Canopy (biology), canopy and are varied by environmental factors. Emergent growth usually comes from Eucalyptus regnans, eucalyptus, which can tower another 50 metres higher (usually less), providing the most common choice of nesting for giant Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle, wedge-tailed eagles. The human environment ranges from urban or industrial development, to farming or grazing land. The most cultivated area is the Midlands (Tasmania), Midlands, where it has suitable soil but is also the driest part of the state. Tasmania's Wiktionary:insular#Adjective, insularity was possibly detected by Captain
Abel Tasman Abel Janszoon Tasman (; 160310 October 1659) was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was the first known European explorer to reach New Z ...
when he charted Tasmania's coast in 1642. On 5 December, Tasman was following the East Coast of Australia, east coast northward to see how far it went. When the land veered to the north-west at Eddystone Point, he tried to keep in with it but his ships were suddenly hit by the Roaring Forties howling through
Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...
. Tasman was on a mission to find the Terra Australis, Southern Continent, not more islands, so he abruptly turned away to the east and continued his continent-hunting. The next European to enter the strait was Captain
James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...
on HMS Endeavour, HMS ''Endeavour'' in April 1770. However, after sailing for two hours westward into the strait against the wind, he turned back east and noted in his journal that he was "doubtful whether they [i.e. Van Diemen's Land and New Holland] are one land or no". The strait was named after George Bass, after he and Matthew Flinders passed through it while circumnavigating Van Diemen's Land in the ''Norfolk'' in 1798–99. At Flinders' recommendation, the Governor of New South Wales, John Hunter, in 1800 named the stretch of water between the mainland and Van Diemen's Land "Bass's Straits". Later it became known as Bass Strait. The existence of the strait had been suggested in 1797 by the master of Sydney Cove when he reached Sydney after deliberately grounding his foundering ship and being stranded on Preservation Island (at the eastern end of the strait). He reported that the strong south westerly swell and the tides and currents suggested that the island was in a channel linking the Pacific and southern Indian Ocean. Governor Hunter thus wrote to Joseph Banks in August 1797 that it seemed certain a strait existed.


Climate

Tasmania has a relatively cool temperate climate compared to the rest of Australia, spared from the hot summers of the mainland and experiencing four distinct seasons. Summer is from December to February when the average maximum sea temperature is and inland areas around Launceston reach . Other inland areas are much cooler, with Liawenee, located on the Central Plateau, one of the coldest places in Australia, ranging between and in February. Autumn is from March to May, with mostly settled weather, as summer patterns gradually take on the shape of winter patterns. The winter months are from June to August, and are generally the wettest and coldest months in the state, with most high lying areas receiving considerable snowfall. Winter maximums are on average along coastal areas and on the central plateau, as a result of a series of cold fronts from the Southern Ocean. Inland areas receive regular freezes throughout the winter months. Spring is from September to November, and is an unsettled season of transition, where winter weather patterns begin to take the shape of summer patterns, although snowfall is still common up until October. Spring is generally the windiest time of the year with afternoon sea breezes starting to take effect on the coast.


Biodiversity

Geographically and biological isolated, Tasmania is known for its unique endemic flora and fauna.


Flora

Tasmania has biodiversity, extremely diverse vegetation, from the heavily grazed grassland of the dry Midlands to the tall evergreen eucalypt forest, alpine climate, alpine heathlands and large areas of cool temperate rain forest, temperate rainforests and moorlands in the rest of the state. Many species are unique to Tasmania and some are related to species in South America and New Zealand through ancestors which grew on the supercontinent of Gondwana, 50 million years ago. ''Nothofagus gunnii'', commonly known as Australian beech, is Australia's only temperate native deciduous tree and is found exclusively in Tasmania. Distinctive species of plant in Tasmania include: * Eucalyptus regnans, ''Eucalyptus regnans'' (mountain ash) – the List of superlative trees, tallest flowering plant and hardwood in the world, Centurion (tree), reaching 100 m (328 ft). * Nothofagus cunninghamii, ''Nothofagus cunninghamii'' (myrtle beech) – the most abundant temperate rainforest canopy species found in Tasmania. * Nothofagus gunnii, ''Nothofagus gunnii'' (deciduous beech) – Australia's only winter-deciduous tree. * Atherosperma moschatum, ''Atherosperma moschatum'' (blackheart sassafras) – a co-dominant rainforest tree with a nutmeg aroma. * Lagarostrobos franklinii, ''Lagarostrobos franklinii'' (Huon pine) – one of the oldest-lived tree species, and a self-preserving timber. * Phyllocladus aspleniifolius, ''Phyllocladus aspleniifolius'' (celery-top pine) – a celery-leaved conifer found in rainforests. * Athrotaxis, Athrotaxis (Tasmanian cedar/redwood) – a genus comprising three extant species related to Sequoiadendron, sequoia found in Tasmania. * Eucryphia lucida, ''Eucryphia lucida'' (leatherwood) – a prominent floral symbol of Tasmania and a unique monofloral honey species.


= Bush tucker

= Tasmania also has a number of Native species, native edibles, known as bush tucker in Australia. These plants were Foraging, foraged by the Tasmanian Aboriginals and also used for other purposes, such as construction. Unusual trees such as Eucalyptus gunnii, cider gum (''Eucalyptus gunnii'') had their Sap, manna used to make a syrup or an Alcohol (drug), alcohol (cider). Other trees such as Acacia, wattles (acacias) like Acacia melanoxylon, blackwood (''Acacia melanoxylon'') and Acacia dealbata, mimosa (''Acacia dealbata'') could have their Wattleseed, seeds eaten or crushed into a powder. There are also many berries such as Gaultheria hispida, snowberry (''Gaultheria hispida''), fruits such as Aristotelia peduncularis, heartberry (''Aristotelia peduncularis''), and vegetables such as Mentha australis, river mint (''Mentha australis''), though no crops like maize that are used for large production.


Fauna

Tasmania has a large percentage of endemism whilst featuring many types of animals found on mainland Australia. Many of these species, such as the platypus are larger than their mainland relatives. The island of Tasmania was home to the thylacine, a marsupial which resembled a Fossa (animal), fossa or some say a wild dog. Known colloquially as the Tasmanian tiger for the distinctive striping across its back, it became extinct in mainland Australia much earlier because of competition by the dingo, introduced in prehistoric times. Owing to persecution by farmers, government-funded bounty hunters and, in the final years, collectors for overseas museums, it appears to have been exterminated in Tasmania. The Tasmanian devil became the Largest mammals#Marsupials (Marsupialia), largest carnivorous marsupial in the world following the extinction of the thylacine in 1936, and is now found in the wild only in Tasmania. Tasmania was one of the last regions of Australia to be introduced to domesticated dogs. Dogs were brought from Britain in 1803 for hunting kangaroos and emus. This introduction completely transformed Aboriginal society, as it helped them to successfully compete with European hunters, and was more important than the introduction of guns for the Aboriginal people. Tasmania is a hotspot for Island gigantism, giant habitat trees and the large animal species that occupy them, notably the endangered Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle, Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle (''Aquila audax fleayi''), the Tasmanian masked owl, Tasmanian masked owl (''Tyto novaehollandiae castanops''), the Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish, Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish (''Astacopsis gouldi''), the Yellow wattlebird, yellow wattlebird (''Anthochaera paradoxa''), the Green rosella, green rosella (''Platycercus caledonicus'') and others. Tasmania is also home to the world's only three migratory parrots, the critically endangered Orange-bellied parrot, Orange-bellied parrot (''Neophema chrysogaster''), the Blue-winged parrot, Blue-winged parrot (''Neophema chrysostoma''), and the fastest parrot in the world, the Swift parrot, swift parrot (''Lathamus discolor''). Tasmania has 12 endemic species of bird in total.


Mycology

Tasmania is a hotspot for Fungi, fungal diversity. The importance of fungi in Tasmania's ecology is often overlooked, but nonetheless they play a vital role in the natural vegetation cycle.


Conservation

Like the rest of Australia, Tasmania suffers from an endangered species problem. In particular, many important Tasmanian subspecies and world-significant species of animal are classified as at risk in some way. A famous example is the Tasmanian devil, which is endangered due to devil facial tumour disease. Some species have already gone extinct, primarily due to Human impact on the environment, human interference, such as in the case of the thylacine or the Tasmanian emu. In Tasmania, there are about 90 endangered, vulnerable, or threatened vertebrate species classified by the state or Commonwealth governments. Because of a reliance on roads and private vehicle transport, and a high concentration of animal populations divided by this development, Tasmania has the worst (per kilometre) roadkill rate in the world, with 32 animals killed per hour and at least 300,000 per year. Protected areas of Tasmania cover 21% of the island's land area in the form of national parks. The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA) was inscribed by UNESCO in 1982, where it is globally significant because "most UNESCO World Heritage sites meet only one or two of the ten criteria for that status. The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA) meets 7 out of 10 criteria. Only one other place on earth—China’s Mount Taishan—meets that many criteria". Controversy surrounds the decision in 2014 by the Abbott Government, Abbott federal Liberal Party of Australia, Liberal government to request the area's delisting and opening for resource exploration (before it was rejected by the UN Committee at Doha), and the current mining and deforestation in the state's Tarkine region, the largest single temperate rainforest in Australia.


Demography

Tasmania's population is more homogeneous than that of other states of Australia, with many of Irish people, Irish and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British descent. Approximately 65% of its residents are descendants of an estimated 10,000 "founding families" from the mid-19th century. Until 2012, Tasmania was the only state in Australia with an above-replacement total fertility rate; Tasmanian women had an average of 2.24 children each. By 2012 the birth rate had slipped to 2.1 children per woman, bringing the state to the replacement threshold, but it continues to have the second-highest birth rate of any state or territory (behind the Northern Territory). Major population centres include
Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
, Launceston, Devonport, Tasmania, Devonport, Burnie, Tasmania, Burnie, and Ulverstone. Kingston, Tasmania, Kingston is often defined as a separate city but is generally regarded as part of the Greater Hobart Area.


Ancestry and immigration

At the 2016 census, the most commonly nominated ancestries were: 19.3% of the population was born overseas at the 2016 census. The five largest groups of overseas-born were from England (3.7%), New Zealand (1%), Mainland China (0.6%), Scotland (0.4%) and the Netherlands (0.4%). 4.6% of the population, or 23,572 people, identified as Indigenous Australians (Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders) in 2016.


Language

At the , 86.1% of inhabitants spoke only English at home, with the next most common languages being Mandarin Chinese, Mandarin (1.5%), Nepali language, Nepali (1.3%), Punjabi language, Punjabi (0.5%) and Spanish (0.3%).


Religion

According to the 2021 Census, 50.0% of the Tasmanian population identified as having no religious affiliation. Christianity is followed by 38.4% of the population. About 4.5% of people in Tasmania follows non-Christian religion mainly Hinduism (1.7%), Buddhism (1.0%) and Islam (0.9%).  At the 2016 census, the most commonly nominated religions were Anglican Church of Australia, Anglicanism (20.4%) and Roman Catholic, Catholicism (15.6%), while 37.8% of the population cited irreligion, no religion.


Government

The form of the government of Tasmania is prescribed in its constitution, which dates from 1856, although it has been amended many times since then. Since 1901, Tasmania has been a state of the Commonwealth of Australia, and the Australian Constitution regulates its relationship with the Commonwealth and prescribes which powers each level of government is allowed. Tasmania is represented in the
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
by 12 senators, on an equal basis with all other states. In the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives, Tasmania is entitled to five seats, which is the minimum allocation for a state guaranteed by the Constitution—the number of House of Representatives seats for each state is otherwise decided on the basis of their relative populations, and Tasmania has never qualified for five seats on that basis alone. Tasmania's
House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...
use a system of multi-seat proportional representation known as Single Transferable Vote, Hare-Clark.


Elections

At the 2002 Tasmanian state election, 2002 state election, the Australian Labor Party, Labor Party won 14 of the 25 House seats. The people decreased their vote for the Liberal Party of Australia, Liberal Party; representation in the Parliament fell to seven seats. The Tasmanian Greens, Greens won four seats, with over 18% of the popular vote, the highest proportion of any Green party in any parliament in the world at that time. On 23 February 2004 the Premier Jim Bacon (politician), Jim Bacon announced his retirement, after being diagnosed with lung cancer. In his last months he opened a vigorous anti-smoking campaign which included many restrictions on where individuals could smoke, such as pubs. He died four months later. Bacon was succeeded by Paul Lennon, who, after leading the state for two years, went on to win the 2006 Tasmanian state election, 2006 state election in his own right. Lennon resigned in 2008 and was succeeded by David Bartlett, who formed a coalition government with the Greens after the 2010 Tasmanian state election, 2010 state election resulted in a hung parliament. Bartlett resigned as Premier in January 2011 and was replaced by Lara Giddings, who became Tasmania's first female Premier. In March 2014 Will Hodgman's Liberal Party won government, ending sixteen years of Labor governance, and ending an eight-year period for Hodgman himself as Leader of the Opposition (Tasmania), Leader of the Opposition. Hodgman then won a second term of government in the 2018 Tasmanian state election, 2018 state election, but resigned mid-term in January 2020 and was replaced by Peter Gutwein. In May 2021, the 2021 Tasmanian state election, Tasmanian state election was held after being called Snap election, early by the incumbent Liberal Party of Australia (Tasmanian Division), Liberal Party, resulting in their return to government and establishment of a one-seat majority. It was also the first time that the Liberal Party had been elected three-times in a row. In April 2022, former deputy premier
Jeremy Rockliff Jeremy Page Rockliff (born 5 February 1970) is an Australian politician who has been serving as the 47th Premier of Tasmania since April 2022, after the resignation of Peter Gutwein as Premier. He has been a Liberal Party of Australia (Tasmanian ...
became Premier after Gutwein announced his retirement from politics.


Politics

Tasmania has a number of undeveloped regions. Proposals for local economic development have been faced with requirements for environmental sensitivity, or opposition. In particular, proposals for hydroelectric power generation were debated in the late 20th century. In the 1970s, opposition to the construction of the
Lake Pedder Lake Pedder, once a glacial outwash lake, is a man-made impoundment and diversion lake located in the southwest of Tasmania, Australia. In addition to its natural catchment from the Frankland Range, the lake is formed by the 1972 damming of the ...
reservoir impoundment led to the formation of the world's first Green party, the
United Tasmania Group The United Tasmania Group (UTG) is generally acknowledged as the world's first Green party to contest elections. The party was formed on 23 March 1972, during a meeting of the Lake Pedder Action Committee (LPAC) at the Hobart Town Hall in order ...
. In the early 1980s the state debated the proposed Franklin Dam, Franklin River Dam. The anti-dam sentiment was shared by many Australians outside Tasmania and proved a factor in the election of the Bob Hawke, Hawke Australian Labor Party, Labor government in 1983, which halted construction of the dam. Since the 1980s the environmental focus has shifted to old growth logging and mining in the Tarkine region, which have both proved divisive. The Tasmania Together process recommended an end to clear felling in high conservation old growth forests by January 2003, but was unsuccessful. In 1996 Tasmanian state election, 1996, the House of Assembly consisted of 35 seats with 7 seats per each of the five electorates. By the 1998 Tasmanian state election, 1998 election, the number of seats had been reduced down to 25, or 5 per each electorate. This resulted in the reduction of the Greens' number of seats from 4 to 1, and increased the proportion of seats held by both the Labor and Liberal parties. This was despite growth in population (five-fold since responsible government) and an increase in the voting percentage required for a majority government. There was also no public consultation, and inquiries at the time had recommended the opposite. The House of Assembly Select Committee in 2020 recommended in its report that the number should be increased again from 25 to 35, arguing that such a small representation would undermine democracy and limit the capabilities of the government. In 2010, the major party leadership had even endorsed reinstating the 35 seat number, but Liberal and Labor support was withdrawn the following year, with only the Greens keeping their commitment.


Local government

Tasmania has 29 Local government areas of Tasmania, local government areas. Local councils are responsible for functions delegated by the Tasmanian parliament, such as urban planning, road infrastructure and waste management. Council revenue comes mostly from property taxes and government grants. As with the
House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...
, Tasmania's local government elections use a system of multi-seat proportional representation known as Single transferable vote, Hare–Clark. Local government elections take place every four years and are conducted by the Tasmanian Electoral Commission by full postal ballot. The next local government elections will be held during September and October 2022.


Economy

Traditionally, Tasmania's main industries have been mining (including copper, zinc, tin, and iron), agriculture, forestry, and Tourism in Tasmania, tourism. Tasmania is on Electricity sector in Australia, Australia's electrical grid and in the 1940s and 1950s, a hydro-industrialisation initiative was embodied in the state by
Hydro Tasmania Hydro Tasmania, known for most of its history as the Hydro-Electric Commission (HEC) or The Hydro, is the trading name of the Hydro-Electric Corporation, a Tasmanian Government business enterprise which is the predominant electricity generator i ...
. These all have had varying fortunes over the last century and more, involved in ebbs and flows of population moving in and away dependent upon the specific requirements of the dominant industries of the time. The state also has a large number of food exporting sectors, including but not limited to seafood (such as salmon, abalone and crayfish). In the 1960s and 1970s there was a decline in traditional crops such as apples and pears, with other crops and industries eventually rising in their place. During the 15 years until 2010, new agricultural products such as wine, saffron, pyrethrum and cherry, cherries have been fostered by the Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research. Favourable economic conditions throughout Australia, cheaper air fares, and two new ''Spirit of Tasmania'' ferries have all contributed to what is now a rising tourism industry. About 1.7% of the Tasmanian population are employed by local government. Other major employers include Nyrstar, Norske Skog, Grange Resources, Rio Tinto Group, Rio Tinto, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hobart, and Federal Group. Small business is a large part of the community life, including Incat, Moorilla Estate and Tassal. In the late 1990s, a number of national companies based their call centres in the state after obtaining cheap access to broad-band fibre optic connections. 34% of Tasmanians are reliant on welfare payments as their primary source of income. This number is in part due to the large number of older residents and retirees in Tasmania receiving Age Pensions. Due to its natural environment and clean air, Tasmania is a common retirement selection for Australians.


Science and technology

The modern Science, scientific sector in Tasmania benefits from around $500 million in annual investment. Tasmania has a long history of scientific and Technology, technological innovation. The first scientific-style observations were conducted by the Aboriginal Tasmanians, First Nation Tasmanians, primarily through the Amateur astronomy, watching and mythologising of the night sky. In a story explaining the Lunar phase, phases of the moon and sun, it shows that it "is one of the rare accounts that explicitly acknowledges that the light of the Moon is a reflection of the Sun's light". The French Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux, D'Entrecasteaux Expedition of 1792–93 had anchored twice during its search of the missing Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, La Pérouse in the Recherche Bay, Baie de la Recherche (Recherche Bay) in far-south Tasmania. During their stay, the crew took Botany, botanical, Astronomy, astronomical, and Earth's magnetic field, geomagnetic observations which were the first of their kind performed on Australian soil. As well as this, they engaged in amicable relations with the locals and environment, gifting the area a "French garden", in which "the relatively extensive, well-documented (both pictorially and written) encounters [...] between [them] provided a very early opportunity for meetings and mutual observation". The longest-running branch of the Royal Society outside of the United Kingdom is the Royal Society of Tasmania which was summoned in 1843. The Tasmanian Society of Natural History had been formed previously in 1838 before its merger with the Royal Society in 1849. It had been served by early Botany, botanists working in Tasmania such as Ronald Campbell Gunn, Ronald Gunn and his correspondences. Although Tamworth, New South Wales, Tamworth in
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
is often credited as being the first place in Australia with Electricity, electric street lighting in 1888, Waratah, Tasmania, Waratah in North West Tasmania was actually the first place to do so in Australia in 1886, although at a smaller scale.


Culture


Literature

Notable titles by Tasmanian authors include ''The Museum of Modern Love'' by Heather Rose, ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' by Richard Flanagan, ''The Alphabet of Light and Dark'' by Danielle Wood (writer), Danielle Wood, ''The Roving Party'' by Rohan Wilson and ''The Year of Living Dangerously (novel), The Year of Living Dangerously'' by Christopher Koch, ''The Rain Queen'' by Katherine Scholes, ''Bridget Crack'' by Rachel Leary, and ''The Blue Day Book'' by Bradley Trevor Greive. A small part of Helen Garner's ''Monkey Grip (novel), Monkey Grip'' is set in Hobart as the main characters take a sojourn there. Children's books include ''They Found a Cave'' by Nan Chauncy, ''The Museum of Thieves'' by Lian Tanner, ''Finding Serendipity'', ''A Week Without Tuesday'' and ''Blueberry Pancakes Forever'' by Angelica Banks, ''Tiger Tale'' by Marion and Steve Isham. Tasmania is home to the eminent literary magazine that was formed in 1979, Island magazine, and the biennial Tasmanian Writers and Readers Festival, now renamed the Hobart Writers Festival. Tasmanian Gothic is a literary genre which expresses the island state's "peculiar 'otherness' in relation to the mainland, as a remote, mysterious and self-enclosed place." Marcus Clarke's novel ''For the Term of his Natural Life'', written in the 1870s and set in convict era Tasmania, is a seminal example. This distinctive Gothic fiction, Gothic is not just restricted to literature, but can be represented through all the arts, such as in painting, music, or architecture.


Visual arts

The biennial ''Tasmanian Living Artists' Week'' is a ten-day statewide festival for Tasmania's visual artists. The fourth festival in 2007 involved more than 1000 artists. Tasmania is home to two winners of the prestigious Archibald Prize—Jack Carington Smith in 1963 for a portrait of Professor James McAuley, and Geoffrey Dyer in 2003 for his portrait of Richard Flanagan. Photographers Olegas Truchanas and Peter Dombrovskis are known for works that became iconic in the
Lake Pedder Lake Pedder, once a glacial outwash lake, is a man-made impoundment and diversion lake located in the southwest of Tasmania, Australia. In addition to its natural catchment from the Frankland Range, the lake is formed by the 1972 damming of the ...
and
Franklin Dam The Franklin Dam or Gordon-below-Franklin Dam project was a proposed dam on the Gordon River in Tasmania, Australia, that was never constructed. The movement that eventually led to the project's cancellation became one of the most significant e ...
conservation movements. English-born painter John Glover (artist), John Glover (1767–1849) is known for his paintings of Tasmanian landscapes, and is the namesake for the annual Glover Prize, which is awarded to the best landscape painting of Tasmania. The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) opened in January 2011 at the Moorilla Estate in Berriedale, Tasmania, Berriedale, and is the largest privately owned museum complex in Australia.


Music and performing arts

Tasmania has a varied musical scene, ranging from the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra whose home is the Hotel Grand Chancellor, Hobart, Federation Concert Hall, to a substantial number of small bands, orchestras, string quintets, saxophone ensembles and individual artists who perform at a variety of venues around the state. Tasmania is also home to a vibrant community of composers including Constantine Koukias, Maria Grenfell and Don Kay (composer), Don Kay. Tasmania is also home to one of Australia's leading new music institutions, IHOS Music Theatre and Opera and gospel choirs, the Southern Gospel Choir. Prominent Australian metal bands Psycroptic and Striborg hail from Tasmania. Noir-rock band The Paradise Motel and 1980s power-pop band The Innocents (Australian band), The Innocents are also citizens. The Mole (Australia season 1), The first season of the television series ''The Mole (Australian TV series), The Mole'' was filmed and based mainly in Tasmania, with the final elimination taking place in Port Arthur jail. The Tasmanian Aboriginals were known to have sung oral traditions, as Fanny Cochrane Smith (the last fluent speaker of any Tasmanian languages, Tasmanian language) had done so in recordings from 1899 to 1903. Tasmania has been home to some early and prominent List of Australian composers, Australian composers. In piano, Katharine Parker, Kitty Parker from Longford, Tasmania, Longford was described by world-famous Australian composer Percy Grainger as his most gifted student. Peter Sculthorpe was originally from Launceston and became well known in Australia for his works which were influenced by his Tasmanian origins, and he is, by coincidence, distantly related to Fanny Cochrane Smith. In 1996, Sculthorpe composed the piece ''Port Arthur: In Memoriam'' for chamber orchestra, which was first performed by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Charles Sandys Packer was an early Tasmanian example of the tradition of Australian classical music, transported for the crime of embezzlement in 1839, and at a similar time Francis Hartwell Henslowe had spent time as a Civil servant, public servant in Tasmania. Amy Sherwin, known as the ''Tasmanian Nightingale'' was a successful soprano, and Eileen Joyce, who came from remote Zeehan, became a world-renowned pianist at the time of her peak.


Cinema

Films set in Tasmania include ''Young Einstein'', ''The Tale of Ruby Rose'', ''The Hunter (2011 Australian film), The Hunter'', ''The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce'', ''Arctic Blast'', ''Manganinnie'' (with music composed by Peter Sculthorpe), ''Van Diemen's Land (film), Van Diemen's Land'', ''Lion (2016 film), Lion'', and ''The Nightingale (2018 film), The Nightingale''. Common within Australian cinema, the Tasmanian landscape is a focal point in most of their feature film productions. ''The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce'' and ''Van Diemen's Land'' are both set during an episode of Tasmania's convict history. Tasmanian film production goes as far back as the silent era, with the epic ''For the Term of His Natural Life (1927 film), For The Term of His Natural Life'' in 1927 being the most expensive feature film made on Australian shores. The Kettering Incident, filmed in and around Kettering, Tasmania, won the 2016 AACTA Award for Best Telefeature or Mini Series. The Nature documentary, documentary series Walking with Dinosaurs was partly filmed in Tasmania due to its terrain. The Tasmanian Film Corporation, which financed ''Manganinnie'', was the successor to the Tasmanian Government Department of Film Production, but disappeared after privatisation. Its role is now filled by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Screen Tasmania, and private ventures such as Blue Rocket Productions.


Media

Tasmania has five broadcast television stations which produce local content including ABC Tasmania, TNT (Australian TV station), Seven Tasmania – an affiliate of the Seven Network, TVT (TV station), WIN Television Tasmania – an affiliate of the Nine Network, TDT (TV station), 10 Tasmania – an affiliate of Network 10 (joint owned by WIN and Southern Cross), and Special Broadcasting Service, SBS.


Sport

Sport is an important pastime in Tasmania, and the state has produced several famous sportsmen and women and also hosted several major sporting events. The Tasmanian Tigers cricket team represents the state successfully (for example the Sheffield Shield in 2007, 2011 and 2013) and plays its home games at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart; which is also the home ground for the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League. In addition, Bellerive Oval regularly hosts international cricket matches. Famous Tasmanian cricketers include David Boon, former Australian captains Ricky Ponting and Tim Paine. Australian rules football is also popularly followed, with frequent discussion of a proposed Tasmanian AFL Bid, Tasmanian team in the Australian Football League (Australian Football League, AFL). Several AFL games have been played at York Park, Aurora Stadium, Launceston, including the Hawthorn Football Club and , at the Bellerive Oval with the North Melbourne Football Club playing 3 home games there. The stadium was the site of an infamous match between St Kilda Football Club, St Kilda and Fremantle Football Club, Fremantle which was AFL siren controversy, 2006, controversially drawn after the umpires failed to hear the final siren. Local leagues include the North West Football League and Tasmanian State League. Rugby League Football is also played in the area, with the highest level of football played is in the Tasmanian Rugby League competition. The most successful team is the Hobart Football Club, Hobart Tigers, who have won the title three times. Rugby Union is also played in Tasmania and is governed by the Tasmanian Rugby Union. Ten clubs take part in the statewide Tasmanian Rugby Competition. Association Football (soccer) is played throughout the state, including a proposed Tasmania United FC, Tasmanian A-League Club and an existing statewide league called the National Premier Leagues Tasmania, NPL Tasmania. Tasmania hosts the professional Moorilla Hobart International, Moorilla International tennis tournament as part of the lead up to the Australian Open and is played at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, Hobart. The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race is an annual event starting in Sydney, NSW, on Boxing Day and finishing in Hobart, Tasmania. It is widely considered to be one of the most difficult yacht races in the world. In basketball, Tasmania was first represented in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League (NBL) by the Hobart Devils, although the team folded in 1996. However, a new National Basketball League team based in both Launceston and Hobart, the Tasmania JackJumpers entered the league in the 2021–22 season, reaching the finals in their debut season and finishing runners up.


Cuisine

Tasmanian Aboriginals had a diverse diet, including native currants, pigface, and native plums, and a wide range of birds and kangaroos. Seafood has always been a significant part of the Tasmanian diet, including its wide range of shellfish, which are still commercially farmed such as crayfish, orange roughy, salmon (food), salmon and oysters. Seal meat also formed a significant part of the Aboriginal diet. Tasmania's non-Aboriginal cuisine has a unique history to mainland Australia. It has developed through many subsequent waves of immigration. Tasmanian traditional foods include scallop pies – a pie filled with scallops in curry – and curry powder, which was popularised by Keen's, Keen's Curry in the 19th century Tasmania also produces and consumes wasabi, saffron, truffles and leatherwood honey Tasmania now has a wide range of restaurants, in part due to the arrival of immigrants and changing cultural patterns. Scattered across Tasmania are many vineyards, and Tasmanian beer brands such as Boags and Cascade Brewery, Cascade are known and sold in Mainland Australia. King Island (Tasmania), King Island off the northwestern coast of Tasmania has a reputation for boutique cheeses and dairy products. The ''Central Cookery Book'' was written in 1930 by Alice Christina Irvine, A. C. Irvine and is still popular in Australia and even internationally. Tasmanian cuisine is often unique, and has won many awards. One example is the Hartshorn Distillery, which has won prizes in the World Vodka Awards for three years in a row since 2017.


Events

To foster tourism, the state government encourages or supports several annual events in and around the island. The best known of these is the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, starting on Boxing Day in Sydney and usually arriving at Constitution Dock in Hobart around three to four days later, during the Taste of Tasmania, an annual food and wine festival. Other events include the rally racing, road rally Targa Tasmania which attracts rally drivers from around the world and is staged all over the state, over five days. Rural or regional events include Agfest, a three-day agricultural show held at Carrick, Tasmania, Carrick (just west of Launceston) in early May and NASA supported TastroFest – Tasmania's Astronomy Festival, held early August in Ulverstone (North West Tasmania). The Royal Hobart Show and Royal Launceston Show are both held in October annually. Music events held in Tasmania include the Falls Festival at Marion Bay, Tasmania, Marion Bay (a Victoria (Australia), Victorian event now held in both Victoria and Tasmania on New Year's Eve), the Festival of Voices, a national celebration of song held each year in Hobart attracting international and national teachers and choirs in the heart of Winter, MS Fest is a charity music event held in Launceston, to raise money for those with multiple sclerosis. The Cygnet Folk Festival is one Australia's most iconic folk music festivals and is held in Cygnet, Tasmania, Cygnet in the Huon Valley every year in January, the Tasmanian Lute Festival is an early music event held in different locations in Tasmania every two years. Recent additions to the state arts events calendar include the 10 Days on the Island arts festival, MONA FOMA, run by David Walsh (art collector), David Walsh and curated by Brian Ritchie and Dark Mofo also run by David Walsh (art collector), David Walsh and curated by Leigh Carmichael. The Unconformity is a three-day festival held every two years in Queenstown on the West Coast of Tasmania, West Coast. Each February in Evandale, Tasmania, Evandale a penny-farthing championships are held.


Perception within Australia

Tasmania is perceived within Australia and internationally as an island with pristine wildlife, water and air. It is known for its ecotourism for these reasons, and is considered an idyllic location for Australians considering a "tree-" or "sea-change", or are seeking retirement because of Tasmania's Temperate climate, temperate environment and friendly locals. In other parts of the world, Tasmania is considered as the opposite side of the planet to most places, and supposedly home to mythically exotic animals, such as the Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes), Tasmanian Devil as popularised by Warner Brothers.


Stereotypes

Tasmania has a reputation within Australia that is often at odds with the reality of the state, or may have only been true during colonial times and has only persevered on the Australian mainland as a myth. Because of these stereotypes, Tasmania is often referred to as the primary target (i.e., "butt") of mainland Australian jokes. In more recent times, references to insults against Tasmania are more Sarcasm, sarcastic and jovial, but angst against the island still exists. The most commonly cited sarcastic comment is on the supposedly 'Polycephaly, two-headed' Tasmanians, which originated due to some colonists developing goitres from the low amount of iodine in the island's soil. But as Tasmania receives higher volumes of inter-state tourists, the perceptions are in the process of changing, due to a higher awareness of the state's unique beauty, and an acknowledgement of the similarities and 'mateship' that hold Australia together. The most prominent example of negative stereotype is of inbreeding due to the relatively small size of Tasmania compared to the rest of Australia (though Tasmania is nearly as large as Ireland in area, and more populous than Iceland). This is untrue of course, and if it had once been the case, it would have existed in the rest of colonial Australia as well, though Tasmania's penal establishments were some of the harshest in the entire colony and home to infamous bushrangers. This is a part of the also-receding global stereotype that all Australians are or were derived from criminals, even as most
convicts A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convict ...
were transported for petty crimes. During this period of European settlement, Tasmania was the second centre of power (and a significant port of the
British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
) on the continent after
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
, before being surpassed in the latter half of the 19th-century by Victoria (Australia), Victoria and regions sustained by Australian gold rushes, mining booms following the cessation of transportation in 1853. A mentality developed in certain corners of Australia, and led to a general dislike of Tasmania amongst these people, even if the opinion-holder had never properly visited. It can rise to such an extent as to argue for the secession of Tasmania from the rest of Australia, in an effort to 'recover' Australia's reputation from Tasmania.


Transport


Air

Tasmania's main air carriers are Jetstar and Virgin Australia; Qantas, QantasLink and Rex Airlines. These airlines fly direct routes to Brisbane Airport, Brisbane, Gold Coast Airport, Gold Coast, Melbourne Airport, Melbourne and Sydney Airport, Sydney. Major airports include Hobart Airport and Launceston Airport; the smaller airports, Burnie Airport, Burnie (Wynyard) and King Island Airport, King Island, serviced by Rex Airlines; and Devonport Airport, Devonport, serviced by QantasLink; have services to Melbourne. Intra-Tasmanian air services are offered by Airlines of Tasmania. Until 2001 Ansett Australia operated majorly out of Tasmania to 12 destinations nationwide. Tourism-related air travel is also represented in Tasmania, such as in the Airlines of Tasmania, Par Avion route between Cambridge Aerodrome near Hobart to Melaleuca, Tasmania, Melaleuca in Southwest National Park.


Antarctica base

Tasmania – Hobart in particular – serves as Australia's chief sea link to Antarctica, with the Australian Antarctic Division located in Kingston, Tasmania, Kingston. Hobart is also the home port of the French ship ''l'Astrolabe'', which makes regular supply runs to the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, French Southern Territories near and in Antarctica.


Road

Within the state, the primary form of transport is by road. Since the 1980s, many of the List of highways in Tasmania, state's highways have undergone regular upgrades. These include the Hobart Southern Outlet, Hobart, Southern Outlet, Launceston Southern Outlet, Bass Highway (Tasmania), Bass Highway reconstruction, and the Huon Highway. Public transport is provided by
Metro Tasmania Metro Tasmania, commonly called Metro, a Tasmanian Government business enterprise, is the largest bus operator in the state of Tasmania, Australia, with operations in three of the four largest urban centres of Hobart, , and . Urban services in ...
bus services, regular taxis and Hobart only UBER ride-share services within urban areas, with Redline Coaches, Tassielink Transit and Callows Coaches providing bus service between population centres.


Rail

Rail transport in Tasmania consists of narrow-gauge lines to all four major population centres and to mining and forestry operations on the west coast and in the northwest. Services are operated by TasRail (2009), TasRail. Regular passenger train services in the state ceased in 1977; the only scheduled trains are for freight, but there are tourist trains in specific areas, for example the West Coast Wilderness Railway. There is an Riverline, ongoing proposal to reinstate commuter trains to Hobart. This idea however lacks political motivation.


Shipping

The port of Hobart is the second deepest natural port in the world, second to only Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. There is a substantial amount of commercial and recreational shipping within the harbour, and the port hosts approximately 120 cruise ships during the warmer half of the year, and there are occasional visits from military vessels. Burnie and Devonport on the northwest coast host ports and several other coastal towns host either small fishing ports or substantial marinas. The domestic sea route between Tasmania and the mainland is serviced by
Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...
passenger/vehicle ferries operated by the Tasmanian government-owned TT-Line Company, TT-Line. The state is also home to Incat, a manufacturer of very high-speed aluminium catamarans that regularly broke records when they were first launched. The state government tried using them on the Bass Strait run but eventually decided to discontinue the run because of concerns over viability and the suitability of the vessels for the extreme weather conditions sometimes experienced in the strait.


Gallery

File: Ossa and Pelion West - panoramio.jpg, Mount Ossa & Mount Pelion West File: Hobart moonrise from Mt Wellington.jpg,
Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
from kunanyi / Mount Wellington File: King River (30198084246).jpg, King River (Tasmania), King River File: Mixed forest, the Styx River, Tasmania.JPG, Styx River (Tasmania), River Styx File: Tasmania logging 01 under tallest tree.jpg, 92-metre-high ''Eucalyptus regnans'' File: Sun rays through the forest trees.jpg, Temperate rainforest File: Western Arthur Range, SW Tasmania.jpg,
Lake Pedder Lake Pedder, once a glacial outwash lake, is a man-made impoundment and diversion lake located in the southwest of Tasmania, Australia. In addition to its natural catchment from the Frankland Range, the lake is formed by the 1972 damming of the ...
and Mount Anne from Arthur Range (Tasmania), Western Arthurs File:Cradle Mountain from the shore of Dove Lake, Tasmania, Australia.jpg,
Cradle Mountain Cradle Mountain is a locality and mountain in the Central Highlands region of the Australian state of Tasmania. The mountain is situated in the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. At above sea level, it is the sixth-highest mountai ...
from the shore of Dove Lake (Tasmania), Dove Lake File:Cataract Gorge Tasmania.jpg, Cataract Gorge, Launceston File:Antarctic Garden Hobart BG.jpg, Sub-Antarctic Garden, Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens,
Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
File:Mt Roland, Tasmania, Australia.jpg, Mount Roland Conservation Area, Mount Roland


See also

* Index of Australia-related articles * List of amphibians of Tasmania * List of schools in Tasmania * Omission of Tasmania from maps of Australia * Outline of Australia * Regions of Tasmania


Notes


References


Further reading

* * * * *


External links


Tasmania Online—the main State Government website

Discover Tasmania
– official tourism website * {{Authority control Tasmania, Islands of Australia States and territories of Australia States and territories established in 1825 1825 establishments in Australia 1642 in the Dutch Empire