The Probert Encyclopaedia of Places of the World

TASMANIA

Tasmania is an island of, and south of, Australia. It was discovered on the 24th of November, 1642 by Abel Jansen Tasman and proved to be an island in 1798-1799 by Flinders who explored the Bass' Straits. A British settlement was established on the island and the island was called Van Diemen's Land Land, until in 1853 it was renamed Tasmania after the governor of the Dutch East Indies or possibly it's discoverer. For the British, Captain Cook visited the island in 1777 and in 1803 it was taken for Britain by Bower, the first governor, Colonel Collins arriving the following year with the first convicts who had been deported from Britain and Hobart Town (now Hobart) was founded, and by 1865 only four of the island's original aborigine inhabitants survived.
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