Tasmania Origins - by Tre

We have now landed in Tasmania, the largest island but smallest state of the largest island nation in the world. Located off Australia's southern coast, Tasmania encompasses about 26,000 square miles, making it the 26th largest island in the world. Like the rest of Australia, this island has an interesting history, full of convicts, prisons, and disease. Fun times.

This story starts, like my last history lesson, with a colonial superpower. Well, it doesn't really start there. The British weren't the first people to arrive in Tasmania. Native Tasmanians, who called themselves Palawa, had been there for tens of thousands of years prior. The Palawa were a subset of Aborigines, the native people of Australia. 

Aborigines first came to Australia around 50,000 years ago, back when Australia and Tasmania were connected by a land bridge. Some of them made their way to Tasmania and settled there, still coming and going from mainland Australia whenever they wanted. But, around the year 6,000 BCE, rising sea levels covered the land bridge and created the Bass Straight, cutting the Palawa people off from mainland Australia. They were isolated from the rest of the world for around 8,000 years, until European contact in 1772. 

And now we can get into the usual story. Who would've guessed that a colonial superpower would come over, steal a bunch of land, and decimate the native population?

If you read my blog post on Abel Tasman you would know that Tasmania was first discovered in 1642 by the Dutch. This put Tasmania on the map, inviting others to explore. The first documented contact between Europeans and Native Tasmanians was in 1772 by a group of French explorers.

At the time, Britain was having some trouble with overflowing prisons (One of the cons of imprisoning anyone who insults the king). When they heard of a newly discovered continent halfway across the world, they thought it would be the perfect place to dump all of their unwanted convicts. 

Thus, the British sailed over to Australia and set up penal colonies, colonies for exiled convicts, in Sidney, Moreton Bay (Now Brisbane), Norfolk Island, and Van Diemen's land (now Tasmania). 

The European population in Tasmania was only around 3,000 people, mostly military personnel and convicts, with a few free settlers. However, this was more than enough to decimate the population of the Tasmanian aborigines. The British brought diseases that the natives had no immunity against, tried to enslave the natives, and moved a bunch of them around to make places for colony sites. In the case of Tasmania, the British even imprisoned many of the Aborigines and put them in camps.

By 1818, the Palawa population had fallen to less than 2,000, while the rapidly growing population of settlers had soared to more than 23,000 by 1830. After several attempts from the settlers to confine or kill the natives, the last 200 Aborigines in Tasmania were forced into camps. The treatment of both the imprisoned Palawa and imprisoned convicts was brutal, but more so for the Palawa. By 1847 all but 40 of the Aborigines had died from malnourishment and disease in the camps. 

In 1905, Fanny Cochrane Smith, widely considered to be the last full-blooded Tasmanian, died at age 70. But this did not mark the end of the Palawa. Despite having some European blood in their veins, Tasmanian Aborigines still practice ancient traditions such as basket and necklace weaving and mutton birding. According to a 2021 census, about 30,000 Tasmanians identify themselves as either Aborigine or Torres Straight Islander. Despite hardships, Palawa heritage has managed to endure, weaving with traditions from all over the world to create a uniquely Tasmanian culture.