History of Tasmania facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

The history of Tasmania started about 10,000 years ago. At that time, it's believed the island was connected to the Australian mainland. We don't know much about human life on the island until the British arrived in the 1800s.

Tasmania's First People

Tasmania was home to Aboriginal Tasmanians for at least 35,000 years. When the British came in 1803, there were thousands of Aboriginal people living across the island. Sadly, conflict, fighting, and new diseases brought by the Europeans greatly reduced their population. By 1833, most surviving Aboriginal people were moved to Flinders Island. For a long time, people thought the last Tasmanian Aboriginal person died in 1876. However, this was a myth, and Aboriginal people continue to live in Tasmania today.

European Explorers Arrive

An old map of Tasmania from the 1600s, showing what Tasman discovered.

The first European to see Tasmania was a Dutch explorer named Abel Tasman in 1642. He named the island Anthoonij van Diemenslandt, which was later shortened to Van Diemen's Land by the British. Other explorers, like Captain James Cook, also visited the island.

The first British settlement began in 1803 at Risdon Cove. A small group came from Sydney. Another settlement was started nearby in 1804 by Captain David Collins. This place became known as Hobart Town, and later just Hobart, named after a British leader. The first settlers were mainly convicts and their guards. They worked to develop farming and other industries. More convict settlements were built, including tough prisons at Port Arthur and Macquarie Harbour. There was a lot of conflict between the British settlers and the Aboriginal people.

Key Moments in History

Early Days: Before 1800

1642: Dutch explorer Abel Tasman is the first European to see Tasmania. He names it Van Diemen's Land.
1792: Captain William Bligh visits and names Table Mountain, now known as Mount Wellington.
1793: French explorer Bruni d'Entrecasteaux explores the Derwent River.
1798: Explorers George Bass and Matthew Flinders visit the Derwent River.

Growing Settlements: 1800s

1803: The first British settlement begins at Risdon Cove.
1804: David Collins establishes a new settlement at Sullivans Cove, which becomes Hobart.
1804: Conflict occurs between settlers and Aboriginal people at Risdon.
1804: A settlement is also started in the north, near the Tamar River, which later becomes Launceston.
1805: The first whaling station in Australia is set up at Ralphs Bay.
1807: Settlers from Norfolk Island arrive in Hobart and settle at New Norfolk.
1809: Floods hit the Derwent River area.

Building the Colony: 1810s

1810: The first church, St David's, is built in Hobart.
1811: Governor Lachlan Macquarie plans the streets of Hobart.
1812: Convicts start arriving directly from England.
1814: Work begins on Anglesea Barracks, a long-standing military building.
1815: Lieutenant-Governor Thomas Davey declares martial law against bushrangers (escaped convicts).
1815: Captain James Kelly sails all the way around the island.
1817: Regular mail service starts between Hobart and Launceston.
1818: The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens are established.

New Developments: 1820s

1820: Roads are improved, and merino sheep arrive.
1821: The Macquarie Harbour penal settlement is established for tough convicts.
1823: The first bank in Tasmania, the Bank of Van Diemen's Land, is created.
1824: The Supreme Court begins. Cascade Brewery, Australia's oldest brewery, opens.
1825: Van Diemen's Land becomes a separate colony from New South Wales. The Richmond Bridge, Australia's oldest existing bridge, opens.
1826: Street lighting with oil lamps is introduced in Hobart.
1828: A rule is made to keep Aboriginal people out of settled areas. The Cape Grim massacre occurs.
1829: A jail for women convicts opens at Cascades.

Major Changes: 1830s

A map of Tasmania from 1837.

1830: The "Black Line" military campaign tries to round up Aboriginal people.
1830: Port Arthur penal settlement is established.
1831: Australia's first novel, Quintus Servinton, is published in Hobart.
1832: Most Aboriginal people are moved to Flinders Island.
1833: The harsh Macquarie Harbour penal settlement closes.
1834: Convicts escape from Macquarie Harbour on a brig called Frederick.
1835: Almost all remaining Tasmanian Aboriginal people move to Flinders Island.
1835: Explorers from Launceston, John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner, help start the first European settlements in Melbourne.
1836: Charles Darwin visits Hobart on his famous voyage.
1836: The first Catholic Church in Australia, St John the Evangelist's, is built in Richmond.
1837: The Theatre Royal opens.
1838: The first annual Hobart Regatta is held on the Derwent River.

Growth and Challenges: 1840s

1840: An economic downturn begins, lasting until 1845.
1840: More convicts are sent to Tasmania as transportation to New South Wales ends.
1842: The first official census counts 57,471 people. Hobart is declared a city.
1842: This is the peak year for convict arrivals.
1844: The Royal Society of Tasmania, a scientific group, is formed.
1845: The ship Cataraqui is wrecked near King Island, with 406 lives lost.
1845: The Hobart Synagogue, Australia's oldest, is consecrated.
1846: Tasmania becomes the first Australian colony to protect native animals.
1847: The Aboriginal settlement on Flinders Island closes, and the remaining 47 Aboriginal people move to Oyster Cove.
1848: Hobart is a busy whaling port.
1849: Tasmania gets its first public library.

A New Name: 1850s

1850: The first secular high school is built.
1851: The first intercolonial cricket match is held in Launceston.
1852: Gold is discovered near Fingal.
1853: A jubilee festival celebrates the end of convict transportation.
1854: The Mercury newspaper is founded.
1855: Horse-drawn "buses" start operating in Hobart.
1856: The name Van Diemen's Land is officially changed to Tasmania. This happens after the colony gains responsible self-government.
1856: A new two-house Parliament opens.
1857: A telegraph line opens between Hobart and Launceston.
1859: A new Government House is occupied.

Modernizing Tasmania: 1860s

1860: British troops leave Hobart to fight in New Zealand.
1860: An economic downturn occurs.
1862: Serious floods hit the Derwent River.
1863: The Tasmanian Museum opens.
1864: The first trout and salmon eggs arrive from England.
1866: The Hobart Town Hall opens.
1867: George Peacock launches one of Australia's first jam factories in Hobart.
1868: Prince Alfred visits and lays the foundation stone for St David's Cathedral.
1868: Tasmania becomes the first Australian colony with a compulsory state education system.
1869: A submarine cable connects Tasmania and Melbourne, allowing communication.

New Industries: 1870s

1870: British troops leave Tasmania.
1871: Tasmania's first railway, the Launceston–Deloraine line, opens.
1871: Tin is discovered at Mount Bischoff.
1872: Direct telegraph communication begins between Tasmania and England.
1874: St David's Cathedral is consecrated.
1875: Hobart Hospital begins professional training for nurses.
1876: The Hobart-Launceston railway opens.
1877: The Port Arthur penal settlement closes. Gold is discovered at Beaconsfield.

Technological Advances: 1880s

1880: An earthquake hits Hobart. Tasmania gets its first telephone.
1881: The first trial shipment of apples from Hobart is sent to Britain.
1881: "Hobart" officially replaces "Hobart Town" as the capital's name.
1882: Silver-lead is discovered at Zeehan. The Hobart Stock Exchange opens.
1883: Government opens the first Hobart and Launceston telephone exchanges.
1885: The Education Department is created.
1886: Copper is found at Mount Lyell.
1887: The Friends School opens in Hobart.
1888: Hobart gets its first technical school. Launceston is proclaimed a city.

Towards Federation: 1890s

1890: The University of Tasmania opens.
1891: The Bank of Van Diemen's Land collapses, leading to an economic downturn.
1891: The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery opens in Launceston.
1893: Hobart gets its first electric tramway, the first in an Australian capital city.
1894: The Hobart international exhibition opens.
1895: Launceston becomes the first city in the Southern Hemisphere to get electric light from a hydro-electric station.
1896: George Adams launches the Tattersalls lottery in Hobart.
1897: The Hare-Clark voting system is used for state elections.
1898: Tasmanians vote strongly in favor of joining the other Australian colonies in a federation.
1898: Electric street lighting begins in Hobart.
1899: The first Tasmanian troops leave for the Second Boer War in South Africa.

A New Century: 1900s

1900: Adult men get the right to vote for the House of Assembly.
1901: The Commonwealth of Australia is proclaimed.
1902: The world's first successful pyritic smelting is completed at Mount Lyell.
1903: Women get the right to vote in state elections.
1904: Native plants and animals are protected in a reserve at Schouten Island and Freycinet Peninsula.
1905: The General Post Office building opens.
1907: A new public library opens in Hobart, funded by Andrew Carnegie.
1908: State school fees are abolished.
1909: A fire destroys the Hobart market.

World Wars and Progress: 1910s

1910: Legislation sets a maximum 48-hour working week and minimum wages.
1910: The Great Lake hydro-electric project begins.
1911: Douglas Mawson's ship Aurora docks in Hobart on its way to Antarctica.
1912: A fire at Mount Lyell traps miners, killing 42.
1912: Roald Amundsen, the first person to reach the South Pole, arrives in Hobart.
1913: The first government high schools open in Hobart and Launceston.
1914: The first Tasmanian troops leave to fight in World War I.
1915: Tasmania establishes Australia's first special authority to manage parks and reserves.
1916: The Great Lakes hydro scheme's first power station opens at Waddamana.
1916: The state's first national parks are declared at Mount Field and Freycinet.
1916: Daylight saving time is first introduced as a wartime measure.
1919: The worldwide Spanish influenza epidemic reaches Tasmania.

Between the Wars: 1920s

1920: The Miena dam is completed. Hudson Fysh, born in Launceston, helps found Qantas.
1922: Legislation allows women to stand in state elections.
1922: Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park is proclaimed.
1923: Joseph Lyons, who would later become prime minister, becomes state premier.
1924: The first Tasmanian radio station, 7ZL, begins broadcasting.
1927: The Duke and Duchess of York (future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth) visit.
1928: Cadbury's Claremont factory makes its first chocolate.
1928: Voting in Tasmanian state elections becomes compulsory.
1929: Disastrous floods in Northern Tasmania cause many deaths. The Great Depression begins.

Depression and Recovery: 1930s

1931: Tasmanian Harold Gatty and American Wiley Post make a record round-the-world flight.
1932: The Lyell Highway opens, connecting Hobart with the West Coast.
1932: Former premier Joseph Lyons becomes prime minister, the only Tasmanian to hold that job.
1934: Holyman Airways plane Miss Hobart disappears over Bass Strait.
1935: Hobart gets its first electric trolley buses.
1936: The last known Tasmanian tiger (thylacine) dies at Hobart's Beaumaris Zoo.
1936: Submarine telephone cable service begins between Tasmania and Victoria.
1937: The Mount Wellington summit road opens.
1938: Work begins on a floating bridge across the Derwent in Hobart.
1939: World War II begins.

Wartime and Post-War: 1940s

1940: German naval raiders lay mines off Hobart.
1941: Australian Newsprint Mills' Boyer plant becomes the first in the world to make newsprint from hardwood.
1942: Daylight saving time is introduced as a wartime measure.
1943: The floating-arch pontoon Hobart Bridge opens.
1943: Enid Lyons, widow of Joseph Lyons, is elected the first woman member of the House of Representatives.
1945: The Rani wins the first Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.
1946: An Australian National Airways plane crashes at Seven Mile Beach, killing 25 people.
1947: War-affected migrants from Europe begin arriving to work for the Hydro-Electric Commission.
1948: Margaret McIntyre becomes the first woman member of Tasmanian Parliament.
1948: An Antarctic research station is established on Macquarie Island.
1949: Enid Lyons becomes the first woman to reach federal ministry rank.

The Fifties: 1950s

1951: Hartz Mountains National Park is proclaimed.
1951: Italian and German migrants arrive to work for the Hydro-Electric Commission.
1952: The first woman is elected to the Hobart City Council.
1953: The Tasman Limited diesel train service begins.
1953: Beaconsfield becomes the first Australian center to get fluoridated water.
1954: Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first reigning monarch to visit the state.
1955: The first two women members, Mabel Miller and Amelia Best, are elected to the House of Assembly.
1955: Hobart becomes the first Australian city to get parking meters.
1959: The Princess of Tasmania becomes the first roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry on the Bass Strait run.

The Sixties: 1960s

1960: Severe floods hit the Derwent Valley and Hobart.
1960: Television stations start broadcasting from Mount Wellington.
1960: Hobart trams stop running, replaced by electric trolley buses.
1963: The University of Tasmania completes its move to Sandy Bay.
1964: The Tasman Bridge opens for traffic. Hobart's water supply is fluoridated.
1965: The first Tasmanians leave for the Vietnam War.
1966: Huge copper reserves are found in the Mount Lyell area.
1967: The "Black Tuesday" bushfires claim 62 lives, mostly in the Hobart area.
1967: Tasmania approves full constitutional rights for Aboriginal Australians.
1967: Daylight saving time and breathalyser tests are introduced.
1968: The state abolishes the death penalty.
1969: The Liberal-Centre Party forms a coalition government, ending 35 years of Labor rule.

The Seventies: 1970s

1970: Parliament makes daylight saving time permanent.
1971: The first woodchip shipment leaves Triabunna.
1972: Conservationists lose the battle to prevent the flooding of Lake Pedder for a hydro-electric scheme.
1973: Australia's first legal casino opens at Wrest Point Hotel Casino.
1973: Sir Stanley Burbury becomes the first Australian-born governor of Tasmania.
1974: Hobart suburban rail services stop.
1975: The freighter MV Lake Illawarra crashes into the Tasman Bridge, causing 12 deaths and bringing down part of the bridge.
1976: Truganini's remains are ritually cremated and her ashes scattered.
1976: The Tasmanian Wilderness Society is formed.
1977: The repaired Tasman Bridge reopens.
1978: The Hydro-Electric Commission proposes a power scheme involving the Gordon, Franklin, and King rivers.

Environmental Battles: 1980s

1980: The Australian Antarctic Division headquarters are completed at Kingston.
1980: Gillian James becomes the first woman to be a State Government minister.
1981: A vote on the proposed Franklin Dam shows many people oppose it.
1982: The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area is proclaimed. Conservationists blockade the Franklin Dam work.
1983: Federal rules block the Franklin Dam construction, ending the proposed scheme.
1983: The Tasmanian Aboriginal Land Council is established.
1984: The Bowen Bridge officially opens.
1985: Aboriginal remains recovered from museums are cremated at Oyster Cove.
1986: Pope John Paul II holds a large mass at Elwick racecourse during his Hobart visit.
1986: Archaeologists discover Aboriginal rock paintings in the South-West, believed to be 20,000 years old.
1988: An international fleet of ships visits Hobart as part of Australian Bicentennial celebrations.
1988: Clarence and Burnie are proclaimed cities.

End of the Century: 1990s

1990: Sea Cat Tasmania, built in Hobart, begins summer crossings of Bass Strait.
1991: The Savings Bank of Tasmania and Tasmanian Bank merge to form Trust Bank.
1992: Aboriginal Australians occupy Risdon Cove to protest land claims.
1993: Christine Milne becomes the first female leader of a Tasmanian political party.
1993: The Spirit of Tasmania replaces the Abel Tasman ferry service.
1994: The state's last power station, Tribute, opens, ending 80 years of dam building.
1995: All-day Saturday shop trading begins.
1995: The government announces plans to transfer culturally important land to the Aboriginal community.
1996: A shooting rampage at Port Arthur historic site kills 35 people.
1997: Tasmania becomes the first state to formally apologize to the Aboriginal community for past actions related to the 'stolen generation'.
1997: State Parliament repeals old laws that made all male homosexual activity criminal.
1998: Parliament is reduced from 54 members to 40.
1998: Storms and massive seas cause six deaths in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.
1999: Wild winds and heavy rain cause chaos across Tasmania.
1999: Albanian refugees from Kosovo are housed at Brighton military camp.
1999: Tasmania is voted the best temperate island in the world by a travel magazine.

The New Millennium: 2000-Present

2000: Tasmania is broadcast worldwide to celebrate the new millennium.
2000: Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia visits Hobart. Tasmania hosts its first Sorry Day.
2001: The Olympic Torch comes to Tasmania.
2001: The Federation Concert Hall opens in Hobart.
2002: Tasmania is hit by drought.
2002: Australia's last ANZAC, Alec Campbell, dies at 103.
2002: Tasmanian boxer Daniel Geale wins a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games.
2002: Virgin Blue begins operating in Tasmania.
2002: Tasmania's fast ferries Spirit of Tasmania I and II replace the original Spirit of Tasmania.
2003: An attempted hijack of a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Launceston occurs.
2003: Tasmania passes progressive laws, including same-sex adoptions.
2003: The engagement of Tasmania's Mary Donaldson to Denmark's Prince Frederik is announced.
2004: Spirit of Tasmania III makes its first voyage from Sydney to Devonport.
2004: Mary Donaldson marries Prince Frederik in Copenhagen.
2004: Premier Jim Bacon dies.
2006: The Beaconsfield mine collapse traps two miners underground for a fortnight.
2011: The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) opens to the public.
2012: Tasmania's largest company, Gunns, enters voluntary administration.

Images for kids

An old map of New Holland from 1644.