Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration and colonisation of Australia in the 19th century. The island was previously discovered and named by the Dutch in 1642. Explorer Abel Tasman discovered the island, working under the sponsorship of Anthony van Diemen, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. The British retained the name when they established a settlement in 1803 before it became a separate colony in 1825. Its penal colonies became notorious destinations for the transportation of convicts due to the harsh environment, isolation and reputation for being inescapable.
The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 British ships that took the first British colonists and convicts to Australia. It comprised two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, with over 1,400 people, left from Portsmouth, England and took a journey of over 24,000 kilometres (15,000 mi) and over 250 days to eventually arrive in Botany Bay, New South Wales, where a penal colony would become the first British settlement in Australia from 20 January 1788.
William Buckley, also known as the "wild white man", was an English bricklayer, and served in the military until 1802, when he was convicted of theft. He was then transported to Australia, where he helped construct buildings for the fledgling penal settlement at Port Phillip Bay in what is now Victoria, Australia.
Truganini, also known as Lalla Rookh and Lydgugee, was a woman famous for being widely described as the last "full-blooded" Aboriginal Tasmanian to survive British colonisation. Although she was one of the last speakers of the Indigenous Tasmanian languages, Truganini was not the last Aboriginal Tasmanian.
The history of Tasmania begins at the end of the Last Glacial Period when it is believed that the island was joined to the Australian mainland. Little is known of the human history of the island until the British colonisation of Tasmania in the 19th century.
Sir George Arthur, 1st Baronet was a British colonial administrator who was Lieutenant Governor of British Honduras from 1814 to 1822 and of Van Diemen's Land from 1824 to 1836. The campaign against Aboriginal Tasmanians, known as the Black War, occurred during this term of office. He later served as Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada from 1838 to 1841, and Governor of Bombay from 1842 to 1846.
Alexander Pearce was an Irish convict who was transported to the penal colony in Van Diemen's Land, Australia for seven years for theft. He escaped from prison several times, allegedly becoming a cannibal during one of the escapes. In another escape, with one companion, he allegedly killed him and ate him in pieces. He was eventually captured and was hanged in Hobart for murder, before being dissected.
The history of Australia from 1788 to 1850 covers the early British colonial period of Australia's history. This started with the arrival in 1788 of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson on the lands of the Eora, and the establishment of the penal colony of New South Wales as part of the British Empire. It further covers the European scientific exploration of the continent and the establishment of the other Australian colonies that make up the modern states of Australia.
Eliza Anne Fraser was an English woman known for being shipwrecked at K'gari, an island off the coast of Queensland, Australia, on 22 May 1836. After being rescued from the island, she spoke and wrote of her experiences, including claims of being captured and enslaved by "Indians", native Butchalla people. The island was renamed 'Fraser Island', in honour of her deceased husband Captain James Fraser. It was renamed to its traditional name of K’gari in June 2023.
Between 1788 and 1868 the British penal system transported about 162,000 convicts from Great Britain and Ireland to various penal colonies in Australia.
Musquito was an Indigenous Australian resistance leader, convict hunter and outlaw based firstly in the Sydney region of the British colony of New South Wales and later in Van Diemen's Land.
Tasmanian Gothic is a genre of Tasmanian literature that merges traditions of Gothic fiction with the history and natural features of Tasmania, an island state south of the main Australian continent. Tasmanian Gothic has inspired works in other artistic media, including theatre and film.
Cornish Australians are citizens of Australia who are fully or partially of Cornish heritage or descent, an ethnic group native to Cornwall in the United Kingdom.
Eliza Fraser is a 1976 Australian bawdy adventure drama film, directed by Tim Burstall and starring Susannah York, Trevor Howard, Noel Ferrier and John Castle. The screenplay was written by David Williamson.
The Roving Party is a 2011 novel written by Tasmanian author Rohan Wilson. Wilson's first book, it is published by Allen & Unwin. The Roving Party won the 2011 Vogel Award. The novel was also shortlisted for the 2011 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction.
Caroline Woolmer Leakey was an English writer, whose poetry and only novel were influenced and based on her experience living in Van Diemen's Land for five years between 1848 and 1853.
The Cyprus mutiny took place on 14 August 1829 in Recherche Bay off the British penal settlement of Van Diemen's Land. Convicts seized the brig Cyprus and sailed her to Canton, China, where they scuttled her and claimed to be castaways from another vessel. On the way, Cyprus visited Japan during the height of the period of severe Japanese restrictions on the entry of foreigners, the first ship from Australia to do so.
The Reverend John Smithies (1802–1872) was a Wesleyan Methodist missionary who served in Newfoundland, the Swan River Colony of Western Australia, and Tasmania.
Enchantress was launched at Bristol in 1825. She was wrecked on 16 July 1835 at Tasmania.
Woretemoeteryenner, also known as "Bung", "Pung", "Maria" and "Margaret", was an Aboriginal Tasmanian woman who was taken from her family and had children with George Briggs, an English convict and sealer. She worked as a sealer and kangaroo hunter in the Bass Strait and on Kangaroo Island and was sold on to other sealers. She was one of five Aboriginal Tasmanian women who were taken to harvest seals at Île Saint-Paul in the southern Indian Ocean, and were later abandoned at Rodriguez Island near Mauritius. Upon being returned to Van Diemen's Land, Woretemoeteryenner became part of George Augustus Robinson's "friendly mission" to round up all the remaining Aboriginal Tasmanians. She, along with the other surviving Aboriginal Tasmanians, was placed into exile at the Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment on Flinders Island. In 1841, Woretemoeteryenner was allowed to leave Wybalenna and live with her daughter's family near Perth, Tasmania where she died in 1847.
