Interesting facts about Tasmania

tasmania

Tasmania is an island state of Australia.

It is located 240 kilometers (150 miles) to the south of the Australian mainland, separated by Bass Strait.

It is the only Australian state that is not located on the Australian mainland.

About 2,500 kilometers (1,600 mi) south of Tasmania island lies Antarctica. Tasmania is in fact geographically closer to Antarctica than it is to parts of the northern Australian mainland.

The state covers a total area of 68,401 square kilometers (247 square miles). It is comparable in size to the United States state of West Virginia or the country of Ireland.

tasmania map

It is the 26th-largest island in the world, and the surrounding 334 islands.

Tasmania has a population of around 530,000 people as of March 2019.

Hobart is the capital and most populous city of Tasmania. With a population of approximately 225,000 (over 40% of Tasmania’s population), it is the least populated Australian state capital city. Founded in 1804 as a British penal colony, Hobart, formerly known as Hobart Town or Hobarton, is Australia’s second oldest capital city after Sydney, New South Wales.

hobart

Tasmania is very mountainous, and its tallest mountain is Mount Ossa at 1,617 meters (5,305 ft) above sea level.

Much of Tasmania is densely forested, with the South West National Park and neighbouring areas home to some of the last temperate rain forests in the Southern Hemisphere.

It is promoted as a natural state, and protected areas of Tasmania cover about 42% of its land area, which includes national parks and World Heritage Sites.

tasmania nature

There are 19 national parks and 800 other reserves.

The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area is a World Heritage Site in Tasmania. The area is one of the largest conservation areas in Australia, covering 15,800 square kilometers (6,100 square miles), or almost 20% of Tasmania after extensions in 1989 and 2013. It constitutes one of the last expanses of temperate wilderness in the world, and includes the South West Wilderness.

tasmanian wilderness

Tasmania’s compelling convict heritage is also officially recognised as worthy of world heritage listing. In July 2010, a total of 11 Australian convict sites were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, five of which are found in Tasmania.

The old convict settlement of Port Arthur offers a sobering look at Tasmania’s turbulent past. In 1830, Governor Sir George Arthur established a brutal penal settlement where convicts were forced to hew coal in the mines and fell timber. In spite of a devastating fire in 1897, the remains of many buildings still stand, including the guard tower, church, model prison, and hospital.

port arthur

The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is an art museum located within the Moorilla winery on the Berriedale peninsula in Hobart. It is the largest privately funded museum in the Southern Hemisphere. MONA houses ancient, modern and contemporary art from the David Walsh collection.

museum of old and new art

The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens (RTBG), which cover an area of approximately 14 hectares (34.6 acres), in Hobart. The gardens were established in 1818. The Gardens hold historic plant collections and a large number of significant trees, many dating back to the nineteenth century.

royal tasmanian botanical gardens

Salamanca Market is a street market in Salamanca Place, Hobart. It is is Tasmania’s most visited tourist attractions and has won many awards for excellence.Located in historic Salamanca Place, next to the Hobart waterfront, the market has over 300 stallholders, and operates every Saturday between 8.30 am to 3.00 pm.

salamanca market

The fascinating Tasmanian devil live only in is a carnivorous, semi-nocturnal creature, whose aggressive nature and wild hissing, growling and screaming earned it the name. Tasmania is the only place where they are found in the wild.

tasmanian devil

The isthmus connecting the Tasman Peninsula to Tasmania is covered in a pattern of regular rectangular saltwater pools. Although these depressions look distinctly manmade, they are the result of a rare type of natural erosion. Occurring near sea coasts on flat rock which has broken into regular blocks, the effect is known as “tessellated pavement” for its resemblance to Roman mosaic floors (also called tessellated pavement).

tessellated pavement

The island is believed to have been occupied by indigenous peoples for 30,000 years before British colonisation.

It is thought Aboriginal Tasmanians were separated from the mainland Aboriginal groups about 10,000 years ago when the sea rose to form Bass Strait.

The first reported sighting of Tasmania by a European was on 24 November 1642 by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasma.

tasmania history

The first settlement was by the British at Risdon Cove on the eastern bank of the Derwent estuary in 1803.

The Dutch explorer Tasman named the island Anthony van Diemen’s Land after his sponsor Anthony van Diemen. The name was later shortened to Van Diemen’s Land by the British. It was officially renamed Tasmania in honour of its first European discoverer on 1 January 1856.

In 1901 it became a state through the process of the Federation of Australia.

Tasmania was the founding place of the first environmental political party in the world.

Tasmania typically has more rainy days than anywhere else in Australia, with “four seasons in a day” being often the norm.