Tasmania
Tasmania (Australian State) | |
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Australian island state. |
Tasmania abbreviated as TAS, is an island state of Australia. It is located 240 km (150 mi) to the south of the Australian mainland, separated from it by Bass Strait. The state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th-largest island in the world, and the surrounding 1000 islands.[1] It is Australia's least populated state, with 541,965 residents as of March 2021. The state capital and largest city is Hobart, with around 40 percent of the population living in the Greater Hobart area.[2]
The main island was inhabited by Aboriginal peoples for up to 40,000 years before British colonisation.[3] It is thought that Aboriginal Tasmanians became separated from the mainland Aboriginal groups about 11,700 years ago, after rising sea levels formed Bass Strait.[4] The island was permanently settled by Europeans in 1803 as a penal settlement of the British Empire to prevent claims to the land by the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars.[5]
Contents
Black war
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" and the spread of infectious diseases.
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.
In 1830, Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur ordered thousands of able-bodied settlers to form what became known as the ‘Black Line’, a human chain that crossed the settled districts of Tasmania. The line moved south over many weeks in an attempt to intimidate, capture, displace and relocate the remaining Aboriginal people.[6] The plan failed, but by early 1835 almost 300 people had surrendered and were removed to Flinders Island.[7] Two individuals, Truganini (1812–1876) and Fanny Cochrane Smith (1834–1905), are separately considered to have been the last people solely of Tasmanian descent.
Event
Event | Description |
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Port Arthur Massacre | A mass shooting incident in and around Port Arthur Tasmania on 28 April 1996. |
Group
Group | Start | Description |
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University of Tasmania | 1890 | Focus on maritime and Antarctic studies |
References
- ↑ https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/national-location-information/landforms/islands%7Caccess-date=14 May 202
- ↑ http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3218.0Main+Features12016-17
- ↑ http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/A/Aboriginal%20life%20pre-invasion.htm
- ↑ https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/separation-of-tasmania
- ↑ Frank Bolt, The Founding of Hobart 1803–1804, ISBN 0-9757166-0-3
- ↑ https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/the-black-line
- ↑ awson, Tom (2014), The Last Man, London: I.B. Taurus, ISBN 978-1-78076-626-3 page 84-86
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