Over Ten Thousand years ago after the last ice age. Rising sea waters separated Tasmania from the Australian Mainland. This isolated the native aborigines who were cut off from the mainland aboriginals forming their own distinct existence.

The first European to sight the island of Tasmania was Dutch explorer Abel Tasman on November 24th 1642 who named the island Anthoonij van Diemenslandt, after Anthony van Diemen, the Governor of the Dutch East Indies who sent Abel on his voyage. . Captain James Cook also sighted the island in 1777 as well as a number of other European seafarers.

The British were the first to settle on the island which the British shortened to Van Diemans Land. They settled at Risdon Cove on the eastern bank of the Derwent estuary in 1803 under Lt John Bowen who brought a small group from Sydney. Another settlement was formed by Capt David Collins the following year at Sullivans Cove which would later become known at Hobarton or Hobart Town named after British Colonial Secretary Lord Hobart.

Settlers were mainly convicts and their guards. There were many convicts settlement formed in Van Diemans Land, including the harsh penal colonies of Port Arthur and Macaquarie Harbour.

Van Diemans Land was proclaimed a separate colony from New South Wales on December 3, 1825

Important dates in Tasmania History