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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-govern ...
, 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 ...
, demonym = , capital = Hobart , 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. for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority and power i ...
, 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 t ...
, 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 , 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 member of the 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 , 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 ...
, 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 gove ...
, judiciary = Supreme Court of Tasmania , 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 , 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. 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 Commonwea ...
, separated from it by the Bass Strait, 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 c ...
and largest city is Hobart, 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, an ...
became separated from the mainland Aboriginal groups about 11,700 years ago, after rising sea levels formed Bass Strait. 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 e ...
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 E ...
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 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 to 900 Aborig ...
" 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 di ...
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 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 sep ...
(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. 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 individua ...
and
World Heritage Sites A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
(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 ...
, 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 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
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 th ...
. 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 geologic period and 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 Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...
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-grain ...
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 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
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 tec ...
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. Locati ...
. 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 under ...
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 be ...
, 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 mount ...
, another dolerite peak, for example, was a nunatak. 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, 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 ...
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 subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
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 ...
, who landed at today's Blackman Bay. 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 directions ...
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 also landed at Adventure Bay in 1777. Matthew Flinders 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 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, with 308 convicts, to the south in Sullivans Cove on the western side of the Derwent, where fresh water was more plentiful. The latter settlement became known as Hobart Town or Hobarton, later shortened to Hobart, after the British Colonial Secretary of the time,
Lord Hobart 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 th ...
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 in 1810 noted the "many atrocious cruelties" inflicted on Aboriginal people by convict bushrangers 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 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 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 to 900 Aborig ...
". 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 colo ...
. 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 also approved the colony changing its name from "Van Diemen's Land" to "Tasmania", and in 1856 the newly elected bicameral parliament 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 South ...
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 ...
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 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 p ...
, killing 62 people and destroying over 652,000 acres in five hours. In 1975 the Tasman Bridge collapsed when the bridge was struck by the bulk ore carrier ''
Lake Illawarra Lake Illawarra ( Aboriginal Tharawal language: various adaptions of ''Elouera'', ''Eloura'', or ''Allowrie''; ''Illa'', ''Wurra'', or ''Warra'' meaning pleasant place near the sea, or, high place near the sea, or, white clay mountain), is an ope ...
''. It was the only bridge in Hobart, and made crossing the 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 Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, abbreviated to TWWHA, is a World Heritage Site in Tasmania, Australia. It is one of the largest conservation areas in Australia, covering , or almost 25% of Tasmania. It is also one of the last ex ...
. The Franklin Dam was blocked by the federal government in 1983, and CSIRO opened its marine studies center in Hobart.
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
would hold mass at
Elwick Racecourse Elwick Racecourse (currently also known by its sponsored name of Ladbrokes Park Elwick) is a Thoroughbred horse-racing venue located on Goodwood Road within Glenorchy, Tasmania, Australia. It is located in close proximity to the Brooker High ...
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 The United Nations Human Rights Committee is a treaty body composed of 18 experts, established by a 1966 human rights treaty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The Committee meets for three four-week sessions per ...
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, lone gunman
Martin Bryant Martin John Bryant (born 7 May 1967) is a convicted Australian mass shooter who murdered 35 people and injured 23 others in the Port Arthur massacre, one of the world's deadliest shooting sprees, in Port Arthur, Tasmania, be ...
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 James or Jim Bacon may refer to: *Jim Bacon (politician) (James Alexander Bacon, 1950–2004), Premier of Tasmania, 1998–2004 *Jim Bacon (rugby) James Arthur Bacon (fourth ¼ 1896 – fourth ¼ 1968) was a Welsh rugby union, and professional ...
died in office from lung cancer. In January 2011 philanthropist David Walsh opened the
Museum of Old and New Art The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is an art museum located within the Moorilla winery on the Berriedale peninsula in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is the largest privately funded museum in the Southern Hemisphere. MONA houses ancient, mode ...
(MONA) in Hobart to international acclaim. Within 12 months, MONA became Tasmania's top tourism attraction. The
COVID-19 pandemic in Tasmania The COVID-19 pandemic in Tasmania is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Timeline 2020 Scotch Oakburn College in Tasmania closed as a preemp ...
resulted in at least 230 cases and 13 deaths . In 2020, after the outbreak of the
coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...
(
SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...
) and its spread to Australia, the
Tasmanian government The Tasmanian Government is the democratic administrative authority of the state of Tasmania, Australia. The leader of the party or coalition with the confidence of the House of Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament of Tasmania, is invit ...
issued a public health emergency on 17 March, the following month receiving the state's most significant outbreak from the North-West which required assistance from the 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 The Roaring Forties are strong westerly winds found in the Southern Hemisphere, generally between the latitudes of 40°S and 50°S. The strong west-to-east air currents are caused by the combination of air being displaced from the Equator ...
" wind that encircles the globe. To its north, it is separated from mainland Australia by Bass Strait. Tasmania is the only Australian state that is not located on the Australian mainland. About south of Tasmania island lies the
George V Coast George V Coast () is that portion of the coast of Antarctica lying between Point Alden, at 148°2′E, and Cape Hudson, at 153°45′E. Portions of this coast were sighted by the US Exploring Expedition in 1840. It was explored by members of t ...
of
Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
. 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 The Great Australian Bight is a large oceanic bight, or open bay, off the central and western portions of the southern coastline of mainland Australia. Extent Two definitions of the extent are in use – one used by the International Hydrog ...
to the west, and the
Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea ( Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer ...
to the east. The southernmost point on mainland Tasmania is approximately at
South East Cape The South East Cape is a cape located at the southernmost point of the main island of Tasmania, the southernmost state of Australia. The cape is situated in the southern and south-eastern corner of the Southwest National Park, part of the Tasma ...
, and the northernmost point on mainland Tasmania is approximately in Woolnorth / Temdudheker near Cape Grim / Kennaook. Tasmania lies at similar latitudes to Te Waipounamu / South Island of New Zealand, and parts of
Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...
in South America, and relative to the Northern Hemisphere, it lies at similar latitudes to
Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The lar ...
in Japan,
Northeast China Northeast China or Northeastern China () is a geographical region of China, which is often referred to as "Manchuria" or "Inner Manchuria" by surrounding countries and the West. It usually corresponds specifically to the three provinces east of ...
(
Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
), the north
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...
in Europe, and the Canada-United States border. The most mountainous region is the Central Highlands area, which covers most of the central western parts of the state. The 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 Southwest National Park is an Australian national park located in the south-west of Tasmania, bounded by the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park to the north and the Hartz Mountains National Park to the east. It is a part of a chain of ...
and neighbouring areas holding some of the last temperate rain forests in the Southern Hemisphere. The
Tarkine The Tarkine ( indigenous name: takayna), officially takayna / Tarkine, is an area containing the Savage River National Park in the north west Tasmania, Australia, which contains significant areas of wilderness. The Tarkine is noted for its bea ...
, containing
Savage River National Park Savage River National Park is located in north-west Tasmania, Australia. Established in April 1999, it is the largest undisturbed area of temperate rainforest in Australia since the era of the thylacine. Unlike other national parks of Tasmania ...
located in the island's far north west, is the largest
temperate rainforest Temperate rainforests are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rain. Temperate rain forests occur in oceanic moist regions around the world: the Pacific temperate rain forests of North American ...
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 Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...
. Many rivers begin in the Central Highlands and flow out to the coast. Tasmania's major population centres are mainly situated around
estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environmen ...
(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 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 colo ...
in the
Furneaux Group The Furneaux Group is a group of approximately 100 islands located at the eastern end of Bass Strait, between Victoria and Tasmania, Australia. The islands were named after British navigator Tobias Furneaux, who sighted the eastern side of ...
of Bass Strait, 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 th ...
south of Flinders Island,
Bruny Island Bruny Island ( Nuenonne: Lunawanna-alonnah) is a island located off the south-eastern coast of Tasmania, Australia. The island is separated from the Tasmanian mainland by the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, and its east coast lies within the Tasman ...
separated from Tasmania by the
D'Entrecasteaux Channel The D'Entrecasteaux Channel is a body of water located between Bruny Island and the south-east of the mainland of Tasmania, Australia. The channel is the mouth for the estuaries of the Derwent and the Huon Rivers and empties into the Tasman S ...
,
Macquarie Island Macquarie Island is an island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, about halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica. Regionally part of Oceania and politically a part of Tasmania, Australia, since 1900, it became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 197 ...
1,500 km from Tasmania, and
Maria Island Maria Island or 'wukaluwikiwayna' in alawa kani) is a mountainous island located in the Tasman Sea">island.html" ;"title="alawa kani) is a mountainous island">alawa kani) is a mountainous island located in the Tasman Sea, off the east coast of ...
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-grain ...
exposure, though the 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 tec ...
ranges, notably
Federation Peak Federation Peak is a Tasmanian mountain with a sharp spire-like shape, which marks the end of the Eastern Arthur Range in the Southwest National Park. The peak, approximately south-west from Hobart, was named after the Federation of Australi ...
and
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. Locati ...
. The presence of these mountain ranges is a primary factor in the
rain shadow effect A rain shadow is an area of significantly reduced rainfall behind a mountainous region, on the side facing away from prevailing winds, known as its leeward side. Evaporated moisture from water bodies (such as oceans and large lakes) is carrie ...
, 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 takayna / Tarkine is located. The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) divides Tasmania into 9 bioregions:
Ben Lomond Ben Lomond (Scottish Gaelic: Beinn Laomainn, 'Beacon Mountain'), , is a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. Situated on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond, it is the most southerly of the Munros. Ben Lomond lies within the Ben Lomond National Me ...
, Furneaux,
King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
, Central Highlands,
Northern Midlands Northern Midlands Council is a local government body in Tasmania, extending south of Launceston into the northern region of the Tasmanian central midlands. Northern Midlands is classified as a rural local government area and has a populatio ...
, Northern Slopes, Southern Ranges,
South East The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
, and
West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
. 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 Temperate rainforests are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rain. Temperate rain forests occur in oceanic moist regions around the world: the Pacific temperate rain forests of North American ...
. 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 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 ...
burning practices. Tasmania also features a diverse
alpine garden An alpine garden (or alpinarium, alpinum) is a domestic or botanical garden, or more often a part of a larger garden, specializing in the collection and cultivation of alpine plants growing naturally at high altitudes around the world, such as in ...
environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
, such as
cushion plant A cushion plant is a compact, low-growing, mat-forming plant that is found in alpine, subalpine, arctic, or subarctic environments around the world. The term "cushion" is usually applied to woody plants that grow as spreading mats, are limited in ...
. Highland areas receive consistent
snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...
fall above ~1,000 metres every year, and due to cold air from
Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
, 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 Plateau and mountainous highlands. In particular, the
Walls of Jerusalem The Walls of Jerusalem ( he, חומות ירושלים, ar, أسوار القدس) surround the Old City of Jerusalem (approx. 1 km2). In 1535, when Jerusalem was part of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Suleiman I ordered the ruined city wa ...
with large areas of rare pencil pine, and its closest relative
King Billy pine ''Athrotaxis selaginoides'' is a species of ''Athrotaxis'', endemic to Tasmania in Australia, where it grows at 400–1,120 m altitude. In its habitat in the mountains, snow in winter is very usual. It is often called King Billy Pine or King W ...
. On the
West Coast Range The West Coast Range is a mountain range located in the West Coast region of Tasmania, Australia. The range lies to the west and north of the main parts of the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park. The range has had a significant numb ...
and partially on Mount Field, Australia's only winter-
deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...
plant, deciduous beech is found, which forms a carpet or
krummholz ''Krummholz'' (german: krumm, "crooked, bent, twisted" and ''Holz'', "wood") — also called ''knieholz'' ("knee timber") — is a type of stunted, deformed vegetation encountered in the subarctic and subalpine tree line landscapes, shaped b ...
, or very rarely a 4-metre tree. Tasmania features a high concentration of
waterfalls A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several w ...
. These can be found in small creeks, alpine streams, 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 The Russell Falls, a Waterfall#Types, tieredcascade waterfall on the Russell Falls Creek, is located in the Central Highlands (Tasmania), Central Highlands region of Tasmania, Australia. Location and features The Russell Falls are situated on ...
in Mount Field due to its proximity to Hobart and stepped falls at a total height of 58 metres. Tasmania also has a large number of
beaches A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...
, the longest of which is Ocean Beach on the West Coast at about 40 kilometres. Wineglass Bay in Freycinet on the east coast is a well-known landmark of the state. The
Tasmanian temperate rainforests The Tasmanian temperate rain forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion in western Tasmania. The ecoregion is part of the Australasian realm, which includes Tasmania and Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New Caledonia, and ad ...
cover a few different types. These are also considered distinct from the more common wet
sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct ...
forests, though these
eucalypt Eucalypt is a descriptive name for woody plants with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australasia: ''Eucalyptus'', ''Corymbia'', ''Angophora'', '' Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...
forests often form with rainforest
understorey In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but abo ...
and
ferns A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except th ...
(such as tree-ferns) are usually never absent. Rainforest found in deep
gullies A gully is a landform created by running water, mass movement, or commonly a combination of both eroding sharply into soil or other relatively erodible material, typically on a hillside or in river floodplains or terraces. Gullies resemble lar ...
are usually difficult to traverse due to dense understorey growth, such as from 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 Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an ...
and are varied by environmental factors. Emergent growth usually comes from
eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as e ...
, which can tower another 50 metres higher (usually less), providing the most common choice of nesting for giant wedge-tailed eagles. The human environment ranges from urban or industrial development, to farming or grazing land. The most cultivated area is the Midlands, where it has suitable soil but is also the driest part of the state. Tasmania's 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 ...
when he charted Tasmania's coast in 1642. On 5 December, Tasman was following the 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 The Roaring Forties are strong westerly winds found in the Southern Hemisphere, generally between the latitudes of 40°S and 50°S. The strong west-to-east air currents are caused by the combination of air being displaced from the Equator ...
howling through Bass Strait. Tasman was on a mission to find the 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 on 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 .e. Van Diemen's Land and New Hollandare 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 The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...
. 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 Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
flora and fauna.


Flora

Tasmania has extremely diverse vegetation, from the heavily grazed grassland of the dry Midlands to the tall evergreen
eucalypt Eucalypt is a descriptive name for woody plants with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australasia: ''Eucalyptus'', ''Corymbia'', ''Angophora'', '' Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...
forest,
alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...
heathlands and large areas of cool
temperate rainforests Temperate rainforests are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rain. Temperate rain forests occur in oceanic moist regions around the world: the Pacific temperate rain forests of North American Pac ...
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 ''Nothofagus gunnii'', the tanglefoot or deciduous beech, is a deciduous shrub or small tree endemic to the highlands of Tasmania, Australia. It was described in 1847 by R.C GunnReid, James B.; Hill, Robert S.; Brown, Michael J.; & Hovenden, Mark ...
'', 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'' (mountain ash) – the tallest flowering plant and hardwood in the world, reaching 100 m (328 ft). * ''Nothofagus cunninghamii'' (myrtle beech) – the most abundant temperate rainforest canopy species found in Tasmania. * ''Nothofagus gunnii'' (deciduous beech) – Australia's only winter-deciduous tree. * ''Atherosperma moschatum'' (blackheart sassafras) – a co-dominant rainforest tree with a nutmeg aroma. * ''Lagarostrobos franklinii'' (Huon pine) – one of the oldest-lived tree species, and a self-preserving timber. * ''Phyllocladus aspleniifolius'' (celery-top pine) – a celery-leaved conifer found in rainforests. * Athrotaxis (Tasmanian cedar/redwood) – a genus comprising three extant species related to sequoia found in Tasmania. * ''Eucryphia lucida'' (leatherwood) – a prominent floral symbol of Tasmania and a unique
monofloral honey Monofloral honey is a type of honey which has a distinctive flavor or other attribute due to its being predominantly from the nectar of a single plant species. It is stored and labeled separately so as to command a premium price. While there may ...
species.


= Bush tucker

= Tasmania also has a number of
native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...
edible An edible item is any item that is safe for humans to eat. "Edible" is differentiated from "eatable" because it does not indicate how an item tastes, only whether it is fit to be eaten. Nonpoisonous items found in nature – such as some mushroo ...
s, known as
bush tucker Bush tucker, also called bush food, is any food native to Australia and used as sustenance by Indigenous Australians, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but it can also describe any native flora or fauna used for culinary or ...
in Australia. These plants were
foraged Foraging is searching for wild food resources. It affects an animal's fitness because it plays an important role in an animal's ability to survive and reproduce. Foraging theory is a branch of behavioral ecology that studies the foraging behav ...
by the
Tasmanian Aboriginals 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 ...
and also used for other purposes, such as
construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form Physical object, objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Pr ...
. Unusual trees such as cider gum (''Eucalyptus gunnii'') had their
manna Manna ( he, מָן, mān, ; ar, اَلْمَنُّ; sometimes or archaically spelled mana) is, according to the Bible, an edible substance which God provided for the Israelites during their travels in the desert during the 40-year period follow ...
used to make a
syrup In cooking, a syrup (less commonly sirup; from ar, شراب; , beverage, wine and la, sirupus) is a condiment that is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars ...
or an alcohol ( cider). Other trees such as wattles (acacias) like blackwood (''Acacia melanoxylon'') and mimosa (''Acacia dealbata'') could have their seeds eaten or crushed into a
powder A powder is a dry, bulk solid composed of many very fine particles that may flow freely when shaken or tilted. Powders are a special sub-class of granular materials, although the terms ''powder'' and '' granular'' are sometimes used to distin ...
. There are also many
berries A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, rasp ...
such as snowberry (''Gaultheria hispida''), fruits such as heartberry (''Aristotelia peduncularis''), and
vegetables Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems ...
such as river mint (''Mentha australis''), though no crops like
maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...
that are used for large production.


Fauna

Tasmania has a large percentage of
endemism Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
whilst featuring many types of animals found on mainland Australia. Many of these species, such as the
platypus The platypus (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus''), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative or mono ...
are larger than their mainland relatives. The island of Tasmania was home to the
thylacine The thylacine ( , or , also ) (''Thylacinus cynocephalus'') is an extinct carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea. The last known live animal was captured in 1930 in Tasma ...
, a
marsupial Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in a ...
which resembled a 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 carnivorous marsupial in the world following the
extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
of the
thylacine The thylacine ( , or , also ) (''Thylacinus cynocephalus'') is an extinct carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea. The last known live animal was captured in 1930 in Tasma ...
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
emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus '' Dromaius''. The emu ...
s. 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 giant habitat trees and the large animal species that occupy them, notably the endangered Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle (''Aquila audax fleayi''), the Tasmanian masked owl (''Tyto novaehollandiae castanops''), the Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish (''Astacopsis gouldi''), the yellow wattlebird (''Anthochaera paradoxa''), the green rosella (''Platycercus caledonicus'') and others. Tasmania is also home to the world's only three migratory parrots, the critically endangered Orange-bellied parrot (''Neophema chrysogaster''), the Blue-winged parrot (''Neophema chrysostoma''), and the fastest parrot in the world, the swift parrot (''Lathamus discolor''). Tasmania has 12
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
species of
bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
in total.


Mycology

Tasmania is a hotspot for
fungal A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from th ...
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 Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...
are classified as at risk in some way. A famous example is the Tasmanian devil, which is endangered due to
devil facial tumour disease Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) is an aggressive non-viral clonally transmissible cancer which affects Tasmanian devils, a marsupial native to Australia. DFTD was first described in 1996. In the subsequent decade the disease ravaged Tasmania's ...
. Some species have already gone extinct, primarily due to human interference, such as in the case of the
thylacine The thylacine ( , or , also ) (''Thylacinus cynocephalus'') is an extinct carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea. The last known live animal was captured in 1930 in Tasma ...
or the
Tasmanian emu The Tasmanian emu (''Dromaius novaehollandiae diemenensis'') is an extinct subspecies of emu. It was found in Tasmania, where it had become isolated during the Late Pleistocene. As opposed to the other insular emu taxa, the King Island emu and t ...
. 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 Protected areas of Tasmania consist of protected areas located within Tasmania and its immediate onshore waters, including Macquarie Island. It includes areas of crown land (withheld land) managed by Tasmanian Government agencies as well as pr ...
cover 21% of the island's land area in the form of national parks. The
Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, abbreviated to TWWHA, is a World Heritage Site in Tasmania, Australia. It is one of the largest conservation areas in Australia, covering , or almost 25% of Tasmania. It is also one of the last ex ...
(TWWHA) was inscribed by
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
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 Tai Mount Tai () is a mountain of historical and cultural significance located north of the city of Tai'an. It is the highest point in Shandong province, China. The tallest peak is the '' Jade Emperor Peak'' (), which is commonly reported as being ...
shan—meets that many criteria". Controversy surrounds the decision in 2014 by the Abbott federal
Liberal government Liberal government may refer to: Australia In Australian politics, a Liberal government may refer to the following governments administered by the Liberal Party of Australia: * Menzies Government (1949–66), several Australian ministries under S ...
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 Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...
and
deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated ...
in the state's
Tarkine The Tarkine ( indigenous name: takayna), officially takayna / Tarkine, is an area containing the Savage River National Park in the north west Tasmania, Australia, which contains significant areas of wilderness. The Tarkine is noted for its bea ...
region, the largest single
temperate rainforest Temperate rainforests are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rain. Temperate rain forests occur in oceanic moist regions around the world: the Pacific temperate rain forests of North American ...
in Australia.


Demography

Tasmania's population is more homogeneous than that of other states of Australia, with many of
Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
and
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
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 The total fertility rate (TFR) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if: # she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime # she were t ...
; 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, Launceston, Devonport,
Burnie Burnie is a port city on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Australia. When founded in 1827, it was named Emu Bay, being renamed after William Burnie, a director of the Van Diemen's Land Company, in the early 1840s. , Burnie had an urban popu ...
, and Ulverstone. 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 "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...
(0.6%), Scotland (0.4%) and the Netherlands (0.4%). 4.6% of the population, or 23,572 people, identified as
Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
(
Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Isl ...
and
Torres Strait Islanders Torres Strait Islanders () are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia, they are often groupe ...
) in 2016.


Language

At the , 86.1% of inhabitants spoke only English at home, with the next most common languages being
Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
(1.5%), Nepali (1.3%), 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 Anglicanism (20.4%) and
Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
(15.6%), while 37.8% of the population cited 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 by 12 senators, on an equal basis with all other states. In the
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 ...
, 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 gove ...
use a system of multi-seat
proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
known as Hare-Clark.


Elections

At the 2002 state election, the Labor Party won 14 of the 25 House seats. The people decreased their vote for the
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...
; representation in the Parliament fell to seven seats. The 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 James or Jim Bacon may refer to: *Jim Bacon (politician) (James Alexander Bacon, 1950–2004), Premier of Tasmania, 1998–2004 *Jim Bacon (rugby) James Arthur Bacon (fourth ¼ 1896 – fourth ¼ 1968) was a Welsh rugby union, and professional ...
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 Paul Anthony Lennon (born 8 October 1955) is a Labor Party politician. He was Premier of Tasmania from 21 March 2004 until his resignation on 26 May 2008. He was member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly for the seat of Franklin from 1990 unt ...
, who, after leading the state for two years, went on to win the 2006 state election in his own right. Lennon resigned in 2008 and was succeeded by
David Bartlett David John Bartlett (born 19 January 1968) is an Australian former politician in the state of Tasmania, serving as the 43rd Premier of Tasmania from May 2008 until January 2011. He was a Labor Party member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly s ...
, who formed a coalition government with the Greens after the 2010 state election resulted in a
hung parliament A hung parliament is a term used in legislatures primarily under the Westminster system to describe a situation in which no single political party or pre-existing coalition (also known as an alliance or bloc) has an absolute majority of legisla ...
. Bartlett resigned as Premier in January 2011 and was replaced by
Lara Giddings Larissa Tahireh "Lara" Giddings (born 14 November 1972) is a former Australian politician who was the 44th Premier of Tasmania from 24 January 2011 until 31 March 2014, the first woman to hold the position. Born in Goroka, Papua New Guinea, she ...
, who became Tasmania's first female Premier. In March 2014
Will Hodgman William Edward Felix Hodgman (born 20 April 1969) is an Australian diplomat and former politician who has been the High Commissioner of Australia to Singapore since February 2021. He was the 45th Premier of Tasmania and a member for the Divisio ...
'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. Hodgman then won a second term of government in the 2018 state election, but resigned mid-term in January 2020 and was replaced by Peter Gutwein. In May 2021, the Tasmanian state election was held after being called early by the incumbent
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...
, 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 member of the 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 A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...
, 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 River Dam. The anti-dam sentiment was shared by many Australians outside Tasmania and proved a factor in the election of the Hawke
Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...
government in 1983, which halted construction of the dam. Since the 1980s the environmental focus has shifted to
old growth An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...
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, the House of Assembly consisted of 35 seats with 7 seats per each of the five electorates. By the 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 A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a state, province, division, or territory. The phrase i ...
. 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 gove ...
, Tasmania's local government elections use a system of multi-seat
proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
known as Hare–Clark. Local government elections take place every four years and are conducted by the
Tasmanian Electoral Commission The Tasmanian Electoral Commission (TEC) in Tasmania, Australia, established in 2005, is an independent office which conducts parliamentary and local government elections in Tasmania. Elections for the House of Assembly take place every four year ...
by full
postal ballot An absentee ballot is a vote cast by someone who is unable or unwilling to attend the official polling station to which the voter is normally allocated. Methods include voting at a different location, postal voting, proxy voting and online vot ...
. 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 Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...
,
tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...
, and iron), agriculture, forestry, and
tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...
. Tasmania is on 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 Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...
, 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 Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of ''Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent in ...
,
pyrethrum ''Pyrethrum'' was a genus of several Old World plants now classified as ''Chrysanthemum'' or ''Tanacetum'' which are cultivated as ornamentals for their showy flower heads. Pyrethrum continues to be used as a common name for plants formerly inclu ...
and cherries have been fostered by the
Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research The Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA) is a research institute in Tasmania dedicated to research and development of sustainable agricultural industries. Founded in 1996, it is a collaborative effort of the University of Tasmania (UTAS) and ...
. 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 Nyrstar is a global multi-metals business, with a market leading position in zinc and lead and growing positions in other base and precious metals, such as copper, gold and silver. Nyrstar has mining and smelting operations located in Europe, North ...
,
Norske Skog Norske Skog ASA, formerly Norske Skogindustrier ASA, which translates as ''Norwegian Forest Industries'', is a Norwegian pulp and paper company established in 1962. The company has long been one of the world's leading manufacturers of newsprint ...
, Grange Resources,
Rio Tinto Rio Tinto, meaning "red river", may refer to: Businesses * Rio Tinto (corporation), an Anglo-Australian multinational mining and resources corporation ** Rio Tinto Alcan, based in Canada ** Rio Tinto Borax in America *** Rio Tinto Borax Mine, ...
, the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hobart The Archdiocese of Hobart is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Australia located in Hobart and covering Tasmania, Australia. Immediately exempt to the Holy See, the area covered was initially adm ...
, and
Federal Group Federal Group is a privately owned family company which operates tourism, hospitality, retail, and a national sensitive freight company but are primarily known for their casino and gaming assets in Tasmania which is described as a "a licence to pr ...
. Small business is a large part of the community life, including
Incat Incat Tasmania is an Australian manufacturer of high-speed craft (HSC) catamaran ferries. Its greatest success has been with large, sea going passenger and vehicle ferries, but it has also built military transports and since 2015 it has built s ...
,
Moorilla Estate Moorilla Estate is a winery located in the suburb of Berriedale, 12 km north of the city centre of Hobart, in Tasmania. Establishment It was established in 1958 by Italian-Australian former textile merchant Claudio Alcorso. Moorilla Est ...
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
scientific Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
sector in Tasmania benefits from around $500 million in annual investment. Tasmania has a long history of scientific and
technological Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...
innovation Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a new or changed entit ...
. The first scientific-style observations were conducted by the First Nation Tasmanians, primarily through the watching and mythologising of the
night sky The night sky is the nighttime appearance of astronomical object, celestial objects like stars, planets, and the Moon, which are visible in a clear sky between sunset and sunrise, when the Sun is below the horizon. Natural light sources in a ...
. In a story explaining the phases of the
moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
and
sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
, 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
D'Entrecasteaux Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni, chevalier d'Entrecasteaux () (8 November 1737 – 21 July 1793) was a French naval officer, explorer and colonial governor. He is perhaps best known for his exploration of the Australian coast in 1792, while ...
Expedition of 1792–93 had anchored twice during its search of the missing La Pérouse in the Baie de la Recherche (Recherche Bay) in far-south Tasmania. During their stay, the crew took
botanical Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
,
astronomical Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxi ...
, and
geomagnetic Earth's magnetic field, also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from Earth's interior out into space, where it interacts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun. The magnetic ...
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 A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...
", in which "the relatively extensive, well-documented (both pictorially and written) encounters ..between
hem A hem in sewing is a garment finishing method, where the edge of a piece of cloth is folded and sewn to prevent unravelling of the fabric and to adjust the length of the piece in garments, such as at the end of the sleeve or the bottom of the g ...
provided a very early opportunity for meetings and mutual observation". The longest-running branch of the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
outside of the United Kingdom is the
Royal Society of Tasmania The Royal Society of Tasmania (RST) was formed in 1843. It was the first Royal Society outside the United Kingdom, and its mission is the advancement of knowledge. The work of the Royal Society of Tasmania includes: * Promoting Tasmanian historic ...
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
botanists This is a list of botanists who have Wikipedia articles, in alphabetical order by surname. The List of botanists by author abbreviation is mostly a list of plant taxonomists because an author receives a standard abbreviation only when that auth ...
working in Tasmania such as Ronald Gunn and his correspondences. Although 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
electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...
street lighting in 1888,
Waratah Waratah (''Telopea'') is an Australian-endemic genus of five species of large shrubs or small trees, native to the southeastern parts of Australia (New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania). The best-known species in this genus is ''Telopea speci ...
in
North West Tasmania North West Tasmania is one of the regions of Tasmania in Australia. The region comprises the whole of the north west, including the ''North West Coast'' and the northern reaches of the ''West Coast''. It is usually accepted as extending as f ...
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 Heather Rose (born 1964) is an Australian author born in Hobart, Tasmania. She is the author of the acclaimed memoir Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here. She is best known for her novels ''The Museum of Modern Love'', which won the 2017 Stella Prize, ...
, ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' by Richard Flanagan, ''The Alphabet of Light and Dark'' by
Danielle Wood Danielle Wood may refer to: * Danielle Wood (writer) (born 1972), Australian writer, journalist and academic * Danielle Wood (economist) (born 1979 or 1980), Australian economist and incoming chair of the Productivity Commission * Danielle Wood ( ...
, ''
The Roving Party ''The Roving Party'' is a 2011 novel written by Tasmanian author Rohan Wilson. Wilson's first book, it is published by Allen & Unwin. ''The Roving Party'' won the 2011 Vogel Award. The novel was also shortlisted for the 2011 Victorian Premier's L ...
'' by Rohan Wilson and '' The Year of Living Dangerously'' by
Christopher Koch Christopher John Koch AO (16 July 1932 – 23 September 2013) was an Australian novelist, known for his 1978 novel '' The Year of Living Dangerously'', which was adapted into an award-winning film. He twice won the Miles Franklin Award (for ' ...
, ''The Rain Queen'' by Katherine Scholes, ''Bridget Crack'' by Rachel Leary, and ''The Blue Day Book'' by
Bradley Trevor Greive Bradley Trevor Greive (born 22 February 1970) is an Australian author. He has written 24 books which have been translated into 27 different languages, and have been sold in 115 different countries, several of which have appeared in the ''New Y ...
. A small part of Helen Garner's '' 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 Lian Tanner (born 17 March 1951 in Tasmania, Australia) is an Australian children's author who lives in southern Tasmania. Tanner is the author of the fantasy Keepers trilogy of children's books. ''Museum of Thieves'' the first book in the serie ...
, ''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 Tasmanian Gothic is a genre of Tasmanian literature that merges traditions of Gothic fiction with the history and natural features of Tasmania, an island state south of the main Australian continent. Tasmanian Gothic has inspired works i ...
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 Marcus Andrew Hislop Clarke (24 April 1846 – 2 August 1881) was an English-born Australian novelist, journalist, poet, editor, librarian, and playwright. He is best known for his 1874 novel '' For the Term of His Natural Life'', about the c ...
's novel ''
For the Term of his Natural Life ''For the Term of His Natural Life'' is a story written by Marcus Clarke and published in ''The Australian Journal'' between 1870 and 1872 (as ''His Natural Life''). It was published as a novel in 1874 and is the best known novelisation of life ...
'', written in the 1870s and set in convict era Tasmania, is a seminal example. This distinctive
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
is not just restricted to literature, but can be represented through all
the arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...
, such as in
painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
,
music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...
, or
architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
.


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 The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor ...
Jack Carington Smith in 1963 for a portrait of Professor
James McAuley James Phillip McAuley (12 October 1917 – 15 October 1976) was an Australian academic, poet, journalist, literary critic and a prominent convert to Roman Catholicism. He was involved in the Ern Malley poetry hoax. Life and career McAuley wa ...
, and
Geoffrey Dyer Geoffrey Dyer (1947 – 7 October 2020) was an Australian artist. He was born and died in Hobart, Tasmania. Career He won the Archibald Prize in 2003 with a portrait of Richard Flanagan. He was a finalist of the 2011 Archibald Prize The Ar ...
in 2003 for his portrait of Richard Flanagan. Photographers
Olegas Truchanas Olegas Truchanas (22 September 1923 – 6 January 1972) was a Lithuanian- Australian conservationist and nature photographer. He was a key figure in the attempt to stop the damming of the ecologically sensitive Lake Pedder in South West Ta ...
and
Peter Dombrovskis Peter Dombrovskis ( lv, Pēteris Dombrovskis; 2 March 194528 March 1996) was an Australian photographer, known for his Tasmanian scenes. In 2003, he was posthumously inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame, the first Australia ...
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 ...
conservation movements. English-born painter John Glover (1767–1849) is known for his paintings of Tasmanian landscapes, and is the namesake for the annual
Glover Prize The Glover Prize is an Australian annual art prize awarded for paintings of the landscape of Tasmania The prize was inaugurated in 2004 by the John Glover Society, based in Evandale, Tasmania, in honour of the work of British-born landscape pai ...
, which is awarded to the best landscape painting of Tasmania. The
Museum of Old and New Art The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is an art museum located within the Moorilla winery on the Berriedale peninsula in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is the largest privately funded museum in the Southern Hemisphere. MONA houses ancient, mode ...
(MONA) opened in January 2011 at the
Moorilla Estate Moorilla Estate is a winery located in the suburb of Berriedale, 12 km north of the city centre of Hobart, in Tasmania. Establishment It was established in 1958 by Italian-Australian former textile merchant Claudio Alcorso. Moorilla Est ...
in 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 The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO) is a symphony orchestra based in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is the smallest of the six orchestras established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). History The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestr ...
whose home is the 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 Constantine Koukias (born 14 October 1965) is a Tasmanian composer and opera director of Greek ancestry based in Amsterdam, where he is known by his Greek name of Konstantin Koukias. He is the co-founder and artistic director of IHOS Music Theatre ...
, Maria Grenfell and 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 The Southern Gospel Choir is a gospel choir based at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music in Hobart, Tasmania, and is directed by Dr. Andrew Legg. The choir and its band, the Very Righteous Gospel Band were formed by Dr. Legg in 2000, soon ...
. Prominent Australian metal bands
Psycroptic Psycroptic are an Australian technical death metal band formed in Hobart, Australia in 1999. Mainstay members are Dave Haley on drums and his brother Joe Haley on guitar. Their lead vocalist, Jason Peppiatt, joined in 2004. In 2008 they signe ...
and
Striborg Striborg is a black metal / ambient project of Australian musician Russell Menzies. The project first began in 1994 under the name Kathaaria and during this time the stage name "Vvelkaarn" was used. The name Kathaaria was adapted from a Darkt ...
hail from Tasmania. Noir-rock band
The Paradise Motel The Paradise Motel are an independent Australian rock band that formed in Hobart, Tasmania in 1994. They relocated to Melbourne and issued two albums on Mushroom Records, ''Still Life'' (1996) and '' Flight Paths'' (1998) before moving to the Un ...
and 1980s power-pop band The Innocents are also citizens. The first season of the television series '' The Mole'' was filmed and based mainly in Tasmania, with the final elimination taking place in Port Arthur jail. The
Tasmanian Aboriginals 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 ...
were known to have sung
oral traditions Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985) ...
, as
Fanny Cochrane Smith Fanny Cochrane Smith (December 1834 – 24 February 1905) was an Aboriginal Tasmanian, born in December 1834. She is considered to be the last fluent speaker of the Flinders Island lingua franca, a Tasmanian language, and her wax cylinder reco ...
(the last fluent speaker of any Tasmanian language) had done so in recordings from 1899 to 1903. Tasmania has been home to some early and prominent
Australian composers Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...
. In piano, Kitty Parker from Longford was described by world-famous Australian composer
Percy Grainger Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who lived in the United States from 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long an ...
as his most gifted student.
Peter Sculthorpe Peter Joshua Sculthorpe (29 April 1929 – 8 August 2014) was an Australian composer. Much of his music resulted from an interest in the music of countries neighboring Australia as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of Aborigin ...
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 An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...
, which was first performed by the
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO) is a symphony orchestra based in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is the smallest of the six orchestras established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). History The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestr ...
. Charles Sandys Packer was an early Tasmanian example of the tradition of
Australian classical music The earliest western musical influences in Australia can be traced to two distinct sources: in the first settlements, the large body of convicts, soldiers and sailors who brought the traditional folk music of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland; ...
, transported for the crime of embezzlement in 1839, and at a similar time
Francis Hartwell Henslowe Francis Hartwell Henslowe (1811–1878) was a British-born civil servant, business manager and composer who worked in England, Australia and India. Born in England, Henslowe was the son of Edward Prentis Henslowe (1772–1857) and Cecilia Mari ...
had spent time as a public servant in Tasmania.
Amy Sherwin Frances Amy Lillian Sherwin (23 March 1855 – 20 September 1935), the 'Tasmanian Nightingale', was an Australian soprano singer. Biography She was born at Forest Home, Huonville, Tasmania on 23 March 1855. She was taught singing by her mot ...
, known as the ''Tasmanian Nightingale'' was a successful soprano, and
Eileen Joyce Eileen Alannah Joyce CMG (died 25 March 1991) was an Australian pianist whose career spanned more than 30 years. She lived in England in her adult years. Her recordings made her popular in the 1930s and 1940s, particularly during World War I ...
, who came from remote
Zeehan Zeehan is a town on the west coast of Tasmania, Australia south-west of Burnie. It is part of the West Coast Council, along with the seaport Strahan, and neighbouring mining towns of Dundas, Rosebery and Queenstown. History The greater ...
, became a world-renowned pianist at the time of her peak.


Cinema

Films set in Tasmania include ''
Young Einstein ''Young Einstein'' is a 1988 Australian comedy film written, produced, directed by and starring Yahoo Serious. It is a fantasized account of the life of Albert Einstein which alters all people, places and circumstances of his life, including r ...
'', '' The Tale of Ruby Rose'', '' The Hunter'', ''
The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce ''The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce'' is a 2008 Australian-Irish film directed by Michael James Rowland starring Irish actors Adrian Dunbar as Philip Conolly and Ciarán McMenamin as bushranger Alexander Pearce and an ensemble Australian c ...
'', ''Arctic Blast'', ''
Manganinnie ''Manganinnie'' is an AFI Award-winning 1980 film which follows the journey of Manganinnie, a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman who searches for her tribe with the company of a lost white girl named Joanna. Based on Beth Roberts' novel of the same nam ...
'' (with music composed by
Peter Sculthorpe Peter Joshua Sculthorpe (29 April 1929 – 8 August 2014) was an Australian composer. Much of his music resulted from an interest in the music of countries neighboring Australia as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of Aborigin ...
), ''
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 sep ...
'', '' Lion'', and '' The Nightingale''. Common within
Australian cinema The cinema of Australia had its beginnings with the 1906 production of ''The Story of the Kelly Gang'', arguably the world's first feature film. Since then, Australian crews have produced many films, a number of which have received internati ...
, 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 ''For the Term of His Natural Life'' is a story written by Marcus Clarke and published in ''The Australian Journal'' between 1870 and 1872 (as ''His Natural Life''). It was published as a novel in 1874 and is the best known novelisation of life ...
'' in 1927 being the most expensive feature film made on Australian shores. The Kettering Incident, filmed in and around
Kettering, Tasmania Kettering is a coastal town on the D'Entrecasteaux Channel (37 km south of Hobart) opposite Bruny Island, Tasmania, Australia. At the 2011 census, Kettering had a population of 984. History The area was explored by Bruni D'Entrecasteau ...
, won the 2016 AACTA Award for Best Telefeature or Mini Series. The
documentary series Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...
Walking with Dinosaurs ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' is a 1999 six-part nature documentary television miniseries created by Tim Haines and produced by the BBC Science Unit the Discovery Channel and BBC Worldwide, in association with TV Asahi, ProSieben and France 3. Envi ...
was partly filmed in Tasmania due to its terrain. The
Tasmanian Film Corporation The Tasmanian Film Corporation was a Tasmanian statutory corporation founded 1977 to replace the Tasmanian Government Department of Film Production. Films By far its biggest success was Manganinnie, an AFI Award and AWGIE Award The AWGIE Award ...
, which financed ''
Manganinnie ''Manganinnie'' is an AFI Award-winning 1980 film which follows the journey of Manganinnie, a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman who searches for her tribe with the company of a lost white girl named Joanna. Based on Beth Roberts' novel of the same nam ...
'', 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 The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...
, Screen Tasmania, and private ventures such as Blue Rocket Productions.


Media

Tasmania has five broadcast television stations which produce local content including
ABC Tasmania ABT is a television station operated by the publicly-owned Australian Broadcasting Corporation, with a transmission area covering southern Tasmania. ABT began broadcasting on VHF channel 2 on 4 June 1960, with studios in inner-city Hobart and ...
, Seven Tasmania – an affiliate of the
Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australia ...
, WIN Television Tasmania – an affiliate of the Nine Network, 10 Tasmania – an affiliate of
Network 10 Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of five ...
(joint owned by WIN and Southern Cross), and 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 The Tasmanian cricket team, nicknamed the Tigers, represents the Australian state of Tasmania in cricket. They compete annually in the Australian domestic senior men's cricket season, which consists of the first-class Sheffield Shield and the ...
cricket team represents the state successfully (for example the
Sheffield Shield The Sheffield Shield (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Marsh Sheffield Shield) is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams from the six states of Australia. Sheffield Shi ...
in 2007, 2011 and 2013) and plays its home games at the
Bellerive Oval Bellerive Oval, known commercially as Blundstone Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a cricket and Australian rules football ground located in Bellerive, a suburb on the eastern shore of Hobart, Australia, holding 20,000 people it is the largest ...
in Hobart; which is also the home ground for the
Hobart Hurricanes The Hobart Hurricanes are an Australian professional men's T20 franchise cricket team based in Tasmania, Australia. They compete in Australia's domestic T20 cricket competition known as the Big Bash League, which is a league where many in ...
in the Big Bash League. In addition, Bellerive Oval regularly hosts international cricket matches. Famous Tasmanian cricketers include
David Boon David Clarence Boon (born 29 December 1960) is an Australian cricket match referee, former cricket commentator and international cricketer whose international playing career spanned the years 1984–1996. A right-handed batsman and a very oc ...
, former Australian captains Ricky Ponting and
Tim Paine Timothy David Paine (born 8 December 1984) is an Australian cricketer and a former captain of the Australia national cricket team in Test cricket. A right-handed batsman and a wicket-keeper, he plays for the Tasmanian Tigers in Australian dome ...
. Australian rules football is also popularly followed, with frequent discussion of a proposed Tasmanian team in the Australian Football League (
AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...
). Several AFL games have been played at Aurora Stadium, Launceston, including the
Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of Hawt ...
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 and Fremantle which was controversially drawn after the umpires failed to hear the final siren. Local leagues include the
North West Football League The North West Football League is an Australian rules football competition in North West Tasmania. The league was previously known as the "Northern Tasmanian Football League" from its inception in 1987 until the end of the 2014 season. History ...
and
Tasmanian State League The Tasmanian State League (TSL), colloquially known as the "Tasmanian Football League (TFL)" (formerly known as the "Tasmanian Australian National Football League (TANFL)" and several other short-term names) is the highest ranked Australian r ...
.
Rugby League Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...
Football is also played in the area, with the highest level of football played is in the
Tasmanian Rugby League NRL Tasmania (abbreviated as NRLTas, and formerly the Tasmanian Rugby League) is the organisation responsible for administering the game of rugby league in the Australian state of Tasmania. Tasmania is an affiliated State of the overall Australi ...
competition. The most successful team is the Hobart Tigers, who have won the title three times.
Rugby Union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
is also played in Tasmania and is governed by the
Tasmanian Rugby Union The Tasmanian Rugby Union, or TRU, is the governing body for the sport of rugby union within the state of Tasmania in Australia. The TRU was established in 1933. It is a member and founding union of Rugby Australia. Currently, the Tasmanian Ru ...
. Ten clubs take part in the statewide Tasmanian Rugby Competition.
Association Football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
(soccer) is played throughout the state, including a proposed Tasmanian A-League Club and an existing statewide league called the NPL Tasmania. Tasmania hosts the professional Moorilla International tennis tournament as part of the lead up to the Australian Open and is played at the
Hobart International Tennis Centre The Domain Tennis Centre is the premier tennis facility in the state of Tasmania, Australia. It is located on the Queens Domain less than 1 kilometre from the CBD of Hobart. The Hobart International Tennis Centre has 6 plexicushion hardcourts ...
, 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 (NBL) by the
Hobart Devils The Hobart Devils are a defunct professional basketball team that competed in Australia's National Basketball League (NBL). Based in Hobart, Tasmania, the team was the only representative from the state of Tasmania for the majority of its ten ...
, although the team folded in 1996. However, a new National Basketball League team based in both Launceston and Hobart, the
Tasmania JackJumpers The Tasmania JackJumpers are an Australian professional basketball team based in Hobart, Tasmania, who entered the National Basketball League (NBL) in the 2021–22 season, and play their home games at MyState Bank Arena and the Silverdome. T ...
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 The orange roughy (''Hoplostethus atlanticus''), also known as the red roughy, slimehead and deep sea perch, is a relatively large deep-sea fish belonging to the slimehead family (Trachichthyidae). The UK Marine Conservation Society has categori ...
,
salmon Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...
and
oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not ...
s. 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 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 are known and sold in Mainland Australia. 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 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 Vodka ( pl, wódka , russian: водка , sv, vodka ) is a clear distilled alcoholic beverage. Different varieties originated in Poland, Russia, and Sweden. Vodka is composed mainly of water and ethanol but sometimes with traces of impuriti ...
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 Constitution Dock is the harbour-side dock area of Hobart, the capital city of the Australian state of Tasmania, in the Port of Hobart, on the Derwent River. The dock is adjacent to other Hobart landmark areas, Victoria Dock, Salamanca Pl ...
in Hobart around three to four days later, during the
Taste of Tasmania The Taste of Tasmania is Tasmania's largest food and wine festival. Established in 1988, the Festival operates from 28 December–3 January and will celebrate its 32nd year in 2022. The festival is held in Hobart's Salamanca Place and waterfr ...
, an annual food and wine festival. Other events include the
road rally Road rally may refer to: * Rallying Rally is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (often called ''rally racing),'' navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at ...
Targa Tasmania Targa Tasmania is a tarmac-based rally event held on the island state of Tasmania, Australia, annually since 1992. The event takes its name from the Targa Florio, a former motoring event held on the island of Sicily. The competition concept i ...
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 An agricultural show is a public event exhibiting the equipment, animals, sports and recreation associated with agriculture and animal husbandry. The largest comprise a livestock show (a judged event or display in which breeding stock is exhibit ...
held at Carrick (just west of Launceston) in early May and
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
supported TastroFest – Tasmania's Astronomy Festival, held early August in Ulverstone (North West Tasmania). The
Royal Hobart Show The Royal Hobart Show is an annual event held in October at the Royal Showgrounds in Glenorchy, Tasmania, Australia. It is the largest of the Royal Shows held in cities and towns around the state by the Royal Agricultural Society of Tasmania. ...
and
Royal Launceston Show The Royal Launceston Show is an annual event held in Carrick in October and is hosted by the Royal National Agricultural and Pastoral Society of Tasmania (RNAPS), established in 1873. The show marks a public holiday that is observed in northern ...
are both held in October annually. Music events held in Tasmania include the
Falls Festival Falls Music & Arts Festival (commonly known as Falls) is a multi-day music festival held annually in Lorne ( Victoria), Marion Bay (Tasmania), Byron Bay (New South Wales) and Fremantle (Western Australia), Australia over the New Year's Eve an ...
at Marion Bay (a 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 MS Fest was a music festival, held annually in Launceston, Tasmania Australia since 2006 until 2011 when the MS Society unsuccessfully attempted to establish a new event under the brand. Hobart, Tasmania. It was a single day event, held in Febr ...
is a charity music event held in Launceston, to raise money for those with multiple sclerosis. The
Cygnet Folk Festival The Cygnet Folk Festival, run since 1982, is a three-day folk music festival held in Cygnet in Tasmania, Australia, that occurs annually on the second weekend in January. History The festival has developed as one of the premier cultural event ...
is one Australia's most iconic
folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...
festivals and is held in
Cygnet A cygnet is a young swan. Cygnet may also refer to: Places * Cygnet Island, a small islet in south-eastern Australia *Cygnet, Ohio, a village in the United States *Cygnet River, South Australia, a locality on Kangaroo Island * Cygnet, Tasmania, ...
in the
Huon Valley The Huon Valley, or simply the Huon, is a valley and geographic area located in southern Tasmania, Australia. The largest town is Huonville, with other smaller towns spread across the area. It includes Australia's most southern permanent settl ...
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 10 Days on the Island is a biennial cultural festival held in Tasmania, Australia. The first was held in 2001. It is Tasmania's premier cultural event, and presents exhibitions, performances and community events in 50 locations around the island. ...
arts festival, MONA FOMA, run by David Walsh and curated by
Brian Ritchie Brian Ritchie (born November 21, 1960) is the bass guitarist for the alternative rock band Violent Femmes. Ritchie was born and raised in the United States and is currently a dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia, with his full-time residence i ...
and
Dark Mofo Dark Mofo is the winter version of the MONA FOMA festival, also held in Tasmania. With many of its events taking place at night, it celebrates the darkness of the southern winter solstice and features many musical acts, large scale light insta ...
also run by David Walsh and curated by Leigh Carmichael.
The Unconformity The Unconformity (formerly the Queenstown Heritage and Arts Festival) is an arts festival held in Queenstown, Tasmania in Australia. Held on the West Coast, the festival is a biennial event. Elements of the festival capture a change in the fat ...
is a three-day festival held every two years in Queenstown on the West Coast. Each February in 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 Ecotourism is a form of tourism involving responsible travel (using sustainable transport) to natural areas, conserving the environment, and improving the well-being of the local people. Its purpose may be to educate the traveler, to provide fund ...
for these reasons, and is considered an idyllic location for Australians considering a "tree-" or "sea-change", or are seeking
retirement Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...
because of Tasmania's 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 as popularised by
Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
.


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 In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...
, 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 sarcastic and jovial, but angst against the island still exists. The most commonly cited sarcastic comment is on the supposedly ' two-headed' Tasmanians, which originated due to some colonists developing
goitre A goitre, or goiter, is a swelling in the neck resulting from an enlarged thyroid gland. A goitre can be associated with a thyroid that is not functioning properly. Worldwide, over 90% of goitre cases are caused by iodine deficiency. The term is ...
s 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 Mateship is an Australian cultural idiom that embodies equality, loyalty and friendship. Russel Ward, in ''The Australian Legend'' (1958), once saw the concept as central to the Australian people. ''Mateship'' derives from '' mate'', meaning ...
' that hold Australia together. The most prominent example of negative stereotype is of
inbreeding Inbreeding is the production of offspring from the mating or breeding of individuals or organisms that are closely related genetically. By analogy, the term is used in human reproduction, but more commonly refers to the genetic disorders and o ...
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 Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
). 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 e ...
) 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 Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...
and regions sustained by 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 Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd, operating as Jetstar, is an Australian low-cost airline (self-described as "value-based") headquartered in Melbourne. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Qantas, created in response to the threat posed by airline Virgi ...
and
Virgin Australia Virgin Australia, the trading name of Virgin Australia Airlines Pty Ltd, is an Australian-based airline. It is the largest airline by fleet size to use the Virgin brand. It commenced services on 31 August 2000 as ''Virgin Blue'', with two ...
;
Qantas Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the world's third-oldest airline still in operation, having been founde ...
, QantasLink and
Rex Airlines Regional Express Pty. Ltd., trading as Rex Airlines (and as Regional Express Airlines on regional routes), is an Australian airline based in Mascot, New South Wales. It operates scheduled regional and domestic services. It is Australia's larg ...
. These airlines fly direct routes to
Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...
,
Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...
,
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
and Sydney. Major airports include
Hobart Airport Hobart Airport is an international airport located in Cambridge, north-east of Hobart. It is the major and fastest growing passenger airport in Tasmania. The Federal government owned airport is operated by the Tasmanian Gateway Consortium ...
and
Launceston Airport Launceston Airport is a regional airport on the outskirts of Launceston, Tasmania. The airport is located in the industrial area of Western Junction from Launceston city centre. It is Tasmania's second busiest after Hobart Airport; it can als ...
; the smaller airports,
Burnie Burnie is a port city on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Australia. When founded in 1827, it was named Emu Bay, being renamed after William Burnie, a director of the Van Diemen's Land Company, in the early 1840s. , Burnie had an urban popu ...
(Wynyard) and King Island, serviced by Rex Airlines; and Devonport, serviced by QantasLink; have services to Melbourne. Intra-Tasmanian air services are offered by
Airlines of Tasmania Airlines of Tasmania, commercially known by the name Par Avion is a regional airline based in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It operates scheduled services across a number of locations in Tasmania. Par Avion also operates a wide variety of chart ...
. Until 2001
Ansett Australia Ansett Australia was a major Australian airline group, based in Melbourne, Australia. The airline flew domestically within Australia and from the 1990s to destinations in Asia. After operating for 65 years, the airline was placed into admini ...
operated majorly out of Tasmania to 12 destinations nationwide. Tourism-related air travel is also represented in Tasmania, such as in the Par Avion route between
Cambridge Aerodrome Cambridge Aerodrome , also known as Cambridge Airport, is a minor airport located in Cambridge, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is located only a few kilometres from the primary airport, Hobart International Airport. Cambridge ...
near Hobart to Melaleuca in
Southwest National Park Southwest National Park is an Australian national park located in the south-west of Tasmania, bounded by the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park to the north and the Hartz Mountains National Park to the east. It is a part of a chain of ...
.


Antarctica base

Tasmania – Hobart in particular – serves as Australia's chief sea link to Antarctica, with the
Australian Antarctic Division The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) is a division of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. The Division undertakes science programs and research projects to contribute to an understanding of Antarctica and the ...
located in Kingston. Hobart is also the home port of the French ship ''l'Astrolabe'', which makes regular supply runs to the
French Southern Territories The French Southern and Antarctic Lands (french: Terres australes et antarctiques françaises, TAAF) is an Overseas Territory (french: Territoire d'outre-mer or ) of France. It consists of: # Adélie Land (), the French claim on the continent ...
near and in Antarctica.


Road

Within the state, the primary form of transport is by road. Since the 1980s, many of the state's highways have undergone regular upgrades. These include the Hobart Southern Outlet, Launceston Southern Outlet, Bass Highway reconstruction, and the
Huon Highway The Huon Highway is an highway in southern Tasmania, Australia. The highway forms part of the A6 and connects Hobart with the southern parts of Tasmania. The original Huon Highway (now known as Huon Road) was a twisty two-lane road skirting ...
. 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 passenger/vehicle ferries operated by the Tasmanian government-owned TT-Line Company, TT-Line. The state is also home to
Incat Incat Tasmania is an Australian manufacturer of high-speed craft (HSC) catamaran ferries. Its greatest success has been with large, sea going passenger and vehicle ferries, but it has also built military transports and since 2015 it has built s ...
, 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 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 mount ...
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 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