History of Tasmania

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The history of Tasmania begins at the end of the Last Glacial Period (approximately 12,000 years ago) 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.

Indigenous people

Main article: Aboriginal Tasmanians

Tasmania was inhabited by an Indigenous population, the Aboriginal Tasmanians, and evidence indicates their presence in the territory, later to become an island, at least 35,000 years ago.[citation needed] At the time of the British occupation and colonisation in 1803 the Indigenous population was estimated at between 3000 and 10,000. Historian Lyndall Ryan's analysis of population studies led her to conclude that there were about 7000 spread throughout the island's nine nations;[1] Nicholas Clements, citing research by N.J.B. Plomley and Rhys Jones, settled on a figure of 3000 to 4000.[2]

The combination of the so-called

Flinders Island by George Augustus Robinson. Until the 1970s, most people thought that the last surviving Tasmanian Aboriginal person was Truganini,[4] who died in 1876. However, this "extinction" was a myth, as documented by Lyndall Ryan in 1991.[5]

European arrival

Main article:
Van Diemens Land
Seventeenth century map of Tasmania, showing the parts seen by Tasman.
Melchisedech Thevenot (1620?–1692): Map of New Holland 1644, based on a map by the Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu.

The first reported sighting of Tasmania by a European was on 24 November 1642 by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, who named the island Anthoonij van Diemenslandt, after his sponsor, the Governor of the Dutch East Indies. The name was later shortened to Van Diemen's Land by the British. In 1772, a French expedition led by Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne landed on the island. Captain James Cook also sighted the island in 1777, and numerous other European seafarers made landfalls, adding a colourful array to the names of topographical features.

The first settlement was by the

John Bowen. An alternative settlement was established by Capt. David Collins 5 km to the south in 1804 in Sullivans Cove on the western side of the Derwent, where fresh water was more plentiful. The latter settlement became known as Hobart Town, later shortened to Hobart, after the British Colonial Secretary of the time, Lord Hobart
. The settlement at Risdon was later abandoned.

The early settlers were mostly convicts and their military guards, with the task of developing agriculture and other industries. Numerous other

convict settlements were made in Van Diemens Land, including secondary prisons, such as the particularly harsh penal colonies at Port Arthur in the south-east and Macquarie Harbour
on the West Coast. The Aboriginal resistance to this invasion was so strong, that troops were deployed across much of Tasmania to drive the Aboriginal people into captivity on nearby islands.

Timeline

Pre-1800

1800–1809

Group of natives of Tasmania

1810–1819

Hobart Town chain gang
Proclamation issued in 1816 to promote friendship between Aboriginal and white people , though it had little effect
  • 1810: David Collins dies suddenly, Lieutenant Edward Lord takes over and first of three administrators pending appointment of second lieutenant-governor.
  • 1810: First church, St David's, built
  • 1810: Colony's first
    flour mill built beside Rivulet
    between Murray St and Elizabeth St, operated by Edward Lord and William Collins
  • 1810: Administration launches colony's first newspaper, the Derwent Star and Van Diemen's Land Intelligencer
  • 1810: Sealing expedition discovers Macquarie Island
  • 1811: After arriving from Sydney, Governor Lachlan Macquarie draws up plan for Hobart streets and orders construction of public buildings and Mount Nelson signal station.
  • 1812: Michael Howe (later bushranging gang leader) among first convicts to arrive directly from England in HMS Indefatigable
  • 1812: Northern Tasmania's lieutenant-governorship ceases, Government House in Hobart takes control of whole island
  • 1813: Schooner Unity not heard of again after convicts seize it in Derwent
  • 1813: First Post Office opens in postmaster's house on corner of Argyle St and Macquarie St
  • 1814: Work starts on Anglesea Barracks, Australia's longest continuously occupied military building
  • 1814: Colony's first
    horse races believed to have taken place at New Town
  • 1814: Lieutenant-governor's court created to deal with small personal financial disputes.
  • 1814: Governor Lachlan Macquarie offers amnesty to bushrangers
  • 1814: Ship
    Argo
     disappears after seizure by convicts in Derwent
  • 1815: Michael Howe's bushranging gang kills two settlers in New Norfolk raid
  • 1815: Lieutenant-Governor Thomas Davey declares martial law against all bushrangers, mainly escaped convicts, with some military deserters; Governor Lachlan Macquarie later revokes order.
  • 1815: Captain James Kelly circumnavigates island in whaleboat
  • 1815: First Van Diemen's Land wheat shipment to Sydney.
  • 1816: First
    emigrant
    ship arrives with free settlers from England
  • 1817: Weekly mail service begins between Hobart and Launceston
  • 1817: Work starts on new St David's Church, replacing earlier structure blown down in storm
  • 1817: First convict ships arrive directly from England
  • 1817: New Government House occupied in Macquarie St, on site of present Town Hall, lower Elizabeth St and Franklin Square.
  • 1818: Government opens flour mill in Hobart
  • 1818: Soldiers and convict kill bushranger Michael Howe on banks of Shannon River
  • 1818: Government establishes nucleus of Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens
  • 1819: First proper hospital opens
  • 1819: Hobart-New Norfolk road built
  • 1819: St David's Church opens

1820–1829

In 1820, Tasmanian roads were first macadamised and

Methodist) meeting in the colony. The following year marked the arrival of the first Catholic clergyman, Father Phillip Conolly; and on his second visit, Governor Lachlan Macquarie chose sites for Perth, Campbell Town, Ross, Oatlands, Sorell and Brighton. In 1821, officials and convicts left Port Dalrymple to establish Macquarie Harbour penal settlement
at Sarah Island.

1822 was the first year Van Diemen's Land Agricultural Society held a meeting in Hobart. In 1823 the

Presbyterian Church's first official ministry in Australia occurred in Hobart and the first Tasmanian bank, Bank of Van Diemen's Land
, was established.

The inauguration of the

Matthew Brady began his bushranging career after escaping from Macquarie Harbour
.

On 3 December 1825, Van Diemen's Land became

Richmond Bridge, Australia's oldest existing bridge, was opened; and a party of soldiers and convicts established Maria Island
penal settlement

In 1826, Van Diemen's Land Company launched the North-West pastoral and agricultural development at

street lighting
with oil lamps was introduced. 1826 was also the year that the Legislative Council met formally for the first time.

1827 saw the first

Burnie
).

A proclamation made in 1828 by Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur excluded Aboriginal people from settled areas and was the year of the Cape Grim massacre. In 1828, martial law was also declared against Aboriginal people in settled areas after Van Diemen's Land Company shepherds killed 30 Aboriginal people at Cape Grim. Regular mail services to and from Sydney began. That year also saw widespread floods. The following year a jail for women convicts ("female factory") opened at Cascades; "Protector" George Augustus Robinson started an Aboriginal mission at Bruny Island, convicts seized the brig Cyprus at Recherche Bay and sailed to China; Van Diemen's Land Scientific Society was formed under patronage of Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur; and a Hobart-New Norfolk coach service began.

1830–1839

A map of Tasmania from 1837.
  • 1830: George Augustus Robinson starts
    reconciliation
    efforts with Aboriginal people by visiting west coast
  • 1830: Samuel Anderson, Pioneer Settler, arrives in Hobart aboard the Lang, employed as book keeper with Van Diemens Land Co. Will go on to establish the third permanent settlement in Victoria at Westernport.
  • 1830: Administration launches "Black Line" military campaign across most of colony to round up Aboriginal people; in seven weeks two are shot and two are captured
  • 1830: Port Arthur penal settlement established
  • 1830: Convict chain gang starts work on causeway across Derwent at Bridgewater
  • John Glover English landscape painter, arrives in Van Diemen's Land on his 64th birthday
  • 1831: Australia's first novel,
    Quintus Servinton, by Henry Savery
    , published in Hobart
  • 1831: New land regulations discontinue free land grants, replacing them with sales
  • 1832: George Augustus Robinson arrives in Hobart with Aboriginal people from Oyster Bay and Big River tribes, the last Aboriginal people removed from European-settled areas; Wybalenna, Flinders Island, chosen for Aboriginal resettlement site.
  • 1832: Ends of martial law against Aboriginal people
  • 1832: Work starts on Cascade Brewery
  • 1832: Regular Hobart-Launceston coach service begins
  • 1832: Maria Island penal settlement closes
  • 1832: Derwent Light ("Iron Pot") lit for first time
  • 1833: Robert Massie arrives in Tasmania takes up position as Engineer with Van Diemens Land Co.
  • 1833: First professional theatrical performance in Hobart
  • 1833: Macquarie Harbour penal settlement closes, convicts transferred to Port Arthur
  • 1834: Convicts evacuating Macquarie Harbour capture brig Frederick and sail to Chile
  • 1834: Stagecoaches begin daily Hobart-New Norfolk, weekly Hobart-Launceston services
  • 1834: Daily Hobart-New Norfolk steamship trips begin
  • 1834: Launceston "female factory" completed
  • 1834: Point Puer boys' convict establishment opens at Port Arthur
  • 1834: First coal shipment leaves convict mines on Tasman Peninsula
  • 1834: Jury trial system for all civil cases begins
  • 1834: Horse-drawn coaches begin taxi-style service
  • 1834: Henty brothers leave Launceston for Portland Bay to make first European settlement in
    Victoria
  • 1835: Nearly all remaining Tasmanian Aboriginal people surrender to George Augustus Robinson and are moved to Flinders Island
  • 1835: Transport George III sinks in D'Entrecasteaux Channel with loss of 139 male convicts of 220 aboard
  • 1835: In separate expeditions, John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner leave Launceston to launch first European settlements at Port Phillip, which developed into Melbourne.
  • 1835: Samuel Anderson leaves Launceston to establish third permanent Victorian settlement at Bass in Western Port.
  • 1835: Colonial artist John Glover sends 35 paintings of Van Diemen's Land to London exhibition.
  • 1835: First meeting to establish Launceston Bank for Savings.
  • 1836: First Catholic Church was built—St John the Evangelist's Church in Richmond. It is the oldest running Catholic Church in Australia.
  • 1836: Charles Darwin visits Hobart during round-the-world voyage in HMS Beagle
  • 1836: Hobart Post office moves to premises on corner of Elizabeth Street and Collins Street
  • 1836: Eleven counties, and some parishes therein, proclaimed; establishing the cadastral divisions of the colony
  • 1837: Theatre Royal opens
  • 1837: Lieutenant Governor Sir John Franklin founds Tasmanian Society for the Study of Natural Science
  • 1837: Police office built on corner of Macquarie Street and Murray Street
  • 1838: The first secular register of births, deaths and marriages in the British colonies established
  • 1838: First annual Hobart
    Regatta
    on Derwent
  • 1838: Work begins on old Customs House, which becomes Parliament House at start of responsible self-government in 1856
  • 1838: Sir John Franklin establishes board of education to introduce non-denominational schools
  • 1838:
    Bruny Island Lighthouse
    completed

1840–1849

  • 1840: Economic
    depression
    starts, continues until 1845
  • 1840: Captain James Ross arrives with Antarctic expedition in HMS Erebus and HMS Terror
  • 1840: Sir John Franklin establishes Ross Bank meteorological observatory site, named after explorer, near present Government House site
  • 1840: Dr William Bedford founds first Hobart private hospital (in house near Theatre Royal) after dispute at government hospital
  • 1840: Transportation from Britain to NSW ends, causing heavier influx of convicts to Tasmania
  • 1842: Colony's first official census, population 57,471
  • 1842: The Weekly Examiner begins publication in Launceston
  • 1842: Hobart proclaimed a city
  • 1842: Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science, first Australian scientific journal, begins publication
  • 1842: Peak year for convict arrivals (5329)
  • 1842: Maria Island's Darlington penitentiary reopened
  • 1843: Arrival of Tasmania's first
    Francis Russell Nixon
  • 1843: Bushranger Martin Cash captured in Hobart, his death sentence was commuted and he was later pardoned
  • 1844: First Catholic bishop, Robert Willson, arrives
  • 1844: Formation of Royal Society of Tasmania, first branch outside Britain, as development of society founded in 1837 by Sir John Franklin; society branch takes over botanical gardens
  • 1844: Norfolk Island, formerly administered by NSW, comes under Tasmanian control
  • 1845: Emigrant ship Cataraqui wrecked near King Island, 406 lives lost
  • 1845: Hobart Savings Bank opens
  • 1845: Jewish community consecrates Hobart Synagogue, Australia's oldest
  • 1845: Artist John Skinner Prout organises first known Australian exhibition of pictures in Hobart
  • 1846: Absconding Act introduced to detain escaping convicts.[7]
  • 1846: Foundation of the Hutchins School and Launceston Grammar School
  • 1846: Lieutenant-governor Sir John Eardley-Wilmot dismissed, allegedly for failure to suppress convict homosexuality
  • 1846: Convict transportation to Tasmania suspended until 1848
  • 1846: Tasmania becomes first Australian colony to enact legislation to protect native animals
  • 1847: Britain orders closure of NSW convict establishment and transfer of remaining prisoners to Tasmania
  • 1847: Big Hobart meeting petitions
    Queen Victoria
    for end to transportation
  • 1847: Wybalenna Aboriginal settlement at Flinders Island closes and surviving 47 Aboriginal people move to Oyster Cove
  • 1847: News of
    Sir John Franklin's death during Arctic
    exploration reaches Hobart
  • 1847: Charles Davis founds hardware business
  • 1847: Launceston doctor
    anaesthetic
    for first time in Tasmania
  • 1848: Hobart peaks as whaling port, with 1046 men aboard 37 ships
  • 1848: Colony now only place of transportation in British Empire
  • 1849: "Young Irelanders" (Irish political prisoners), including William Smith O'Brien, arrive at Port Arthur
  • 1849: Anti-transportation league formed after Launceston public meeting
  • 1849: Tasmania gets first public library
  • 1849: Tasmanian apple growers export to the United States of America and New Zealand

1850–1859

  • 1850: Prisoner
    Irish Nationalist
    paper in Australia.
  • 1850: First secular high school built at Domain
  • 1850: Constitution Dock officially opened
  • 1851: O'Donoghue sent to a chain-gang, released, restarts his paper and sent again to a chain-gang.
  • 1851: Black Thursday bushfires in February
  • 1851: Influenza epidemic
  • 1851: First election for 16 non-appointed members of Legislative Council
  • 1851: Hobart
    Chamber of Commerce
    established
  • 1851: Launceston host for first intercolonial cricket match (Van Diemen's Land v Port Phillip district)
  • 1851: Maria Island's Darlington penitentiary abandoned
  • 1852: Elections for first Hobart and Launceston municipal councils
  • 1852: Payable gold discovered near Fingal
  • 1853: Jubilee festival in Hobart celebrates end of convict transportation after arrival of last ship, the St Vincent
  • 1853: First Tasmanian adhesive postage stamp issued
  • 1854: Severe floods, fires hit city
  • 1854: The Mercury founded as bi-weekly publication
  • 1855: Horse-drawn "buses" (large carts) begin services, mainly on city–New Town route; they later become enclosed vehicles
  • 1855:
    Henry Young
    becomes first vice-regal representative to have title of Governor
  • 1856: Name of Van Diemen's Land officially changed to Tasmania after grant of responsible self-government
  • 1856: New two-house Parliament opens after elections,
    Premier
  • 1856: Norfolk Island transferred from Tasmanian to NSW control
  • 1857: Hobart's municipal Incorporation
  • 1857: Hobart-Launceston
    telegraph
    line opens
  • 1857: Hobart customers start using coal gas, streets get gas lighting
  • 1858: First meeting of Hobarts Marine Board, Australia's oldest port authority
  • 1858: Hobart and Launceston councils form municipal police forces
  • 1858: Council of Education established
  • 1858: Hobart Savings Bank founded
  • 1858: Parliament passes Rural Municipalities Act
  • 1859: Worries about public health prompt Hobart Town Council to appoint health officer
  • 1859: New
    Henry Young
    and Lady Young

1860–1869

  • 1860: British troops sail from Hobart for Māori war in New Zealand
  • 1860: Volunteer corps of infantry, cavalry and artillery formed
  • 1860:
    Economic depression
  • 1860: The Mercury begins daily publication
  • 1862: Tasmania adopts Torrens title land-conveyancing and registration system
  • 1862: Serious
    Derwent
    flooding
  • 1862: Hobart's post office moves to rebuilt courthouse on corner of Macquarie St and Murray St
  • 1863: Opening of Tasmanian Museum on present site
  • 1864: First shipment of trout and salmon ova arrives from England
  • 1866: Hobart Town Hall opened
  • 1866: Hobart
    Philharmonic Society
    formed
  • 1867: George Peacock launches one of Australia's first jam factories in Hobart (later operated by Henry Jones and Co under the name IXL)
  • 1868: First royal visit, during which Prince Alfred (Duke of Edinburgh) lays foundation stone for St David's Cathedral and turns first sod for Tasmania's first railway, Launceston-Deloraine line, built by a private company.
  • 1868: With Education Act, Tasmania becomes first Australian colony to have compulsory state education system, administered by local school boards
  • 1869: Death of William Lanne ("King Billy"), reputedly the last full blood Tasmanian Aboriginal man; whose remains were disrespected horribly after disagreement over who should have his remains.
  • 1869: Submarine communications cable successfully establishes link between Tasmania and Melbourne.

1870–1879

  • 1870: British troops leave
  • 1870: Tasmanian Public Library formally constituted
  • 1871: Opening of Launceston–Deloraine railway, Tasmania's first—(1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in))
  • 1871: James "Philosopher" Smith discovers tin at Mount Bischoff
  • 1872: Direct
    telegraphic
    communication begins between Tasmania and England
  • 1873: Work begins on private operated Hobart–Launceston
    rail
    link—(1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in))
  • 1873: Government takes over Launceston-Deloraine line
  • 1874: St David's Cathedral
    consecrated
  • 1874: Tasmanian Racing Club established
  • 1874: Launceston rioters protest against rates levy for Deloraine railway
  • 1874: First book publication of Marcus Clarke's For the Term of His Natural Life, set mainly in Tasmania
  • 1875: Hobart Hospital begins professional training of nurses
  • 1875: Widespread flooding
  • 1876: Truganini, described as last Tasmanian full blooded Aboriginal person, dies in Hobart
  • 1876: Hobart-Launceston railway opens
  • 1877: Port Arthur penal settlement closed
  • 1877: Gold discovered at Beaconsfield
  • 1878: Mount Heemskirk tin mining begins

1880–1889

1890–1899

1900–1909

Horace Watson recording the songs of Fanny Cochrane Smith, considered to be the last fluent speaker of a Tasmanian language, 1903.
  • 1900: More Tasmanian troops leave for Second Boer War
  • 1900: Adult male suffrage for House of Assembly adopted, with property qualifications abolished
  • 1900: End of whaling operations from Hobart
  • 1900: Bubonic plague scare grips Tasmania
  • 1900:
    dependency
  • 1901: Administrator
    Commonwealth of Australia
    from Tasmanian Supreme Court steps
  • 1901: Visit by Duke and Duchess of
    King George V and Queen Mary
    )
  • 1901: First elections for Federal Parliament
  • 1901: Zeehan conference leads to formation of Tasmanian Workers Political League (forerunner to Labor Party)
  • 1902: Last Tasmanian troops return from the Boer War
  • 1902: Robert Carl Sticht completes world's first successful pyritic smelting at Mount Lyell
  • 1903: Women get House of Assembly voting right (the already had it for federal polls)
  • 1903: Hobart-Launceston telephone line opens
  • 1903: Two ships leave Hobart on relief expedition to free British explorer Robert Scott's Discovery from Antarctic ice
  • 1903: Launceston smallpox epidemic forces cancellation of Tasmanian centenary celebrations, some festivities a year later
  • 1904: Legislation allows Tasmanian women to become lawyers
  • 1904: Formation of Tasmanian National Association (forerunner to
    Liberal Party
    )
  • 1904: Native flora and fauna reserve declared at Schouten Island and Freycinet Peninsula
  • 1905: Wireless telegraphy experiments between Hobart and Tasman Island and between state and mainland
  • 1905: Hobart General Post Office building opens
  • 1906: Marconi Co. demonstrated a wireless telegraphy service between Devonport and Queenscliff, Victoria
  • 1906: Tasman Lighthouse first lit
  • 1907: New public library, built with money from American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, opens in Hobart
  • 1907: Hare-Clark voting system extended to all of Tasmania
  • 1908: State school fees abolished
  • 1908: Queen Alexandra Maternity Hospital opens in Hobart
  • 1908: First
    Scout troops
    formed
  • 1909:
    Guy Fawkes Day
    (5 November) fire destroy Hobart market, City Hall later built on site
  • 1909: First statewide use of Hare-Clark voting system elects first Labor government, led by John Earle; government lasts only one week, with return of conservatives
  • 1909: Irish blight wipes out potato crop

1910–1919

  • 1910: Carters' wage strike paralyses Hobart for a week, ends with win for workers
  • 1910: Legislation sets maximum 48-hour working week and minimum wages in several trades
  • 1910: Great Lake
    hydro-electric
    project starts
  • 1911: The Christian Brothers founded and opened the St. Virgil's College School in what is now, Barrack Street in Hobart.
  • 1911: Douglas Mawson's ship Aurora docks in Hobart on way to Antarctic
  • 1911: Philip Smith teachers' college opens at Domain, Electric trams begin running in Launceston
  • 1912:
    Mount Lyell
    fire traps miners underground, 42 die
  • 1912: Norwegian Roald Amundsen, first man to reach South Pole, arrives in Hobart on return from Antarctic expedition
  • 1912: Hobart City Council takes over tramway service
  • 1912:
    First Tasmanian Girl Guide
    company formed
  • 1913: First government high schools open in Hobart and Launceston
  • 1913: Hobart City Council buys tram service
  • 1913: Term "free by servitude" referring to ex-convicts, appears for last time in official documents, after use for more than 100 years
  • 1914: A. Delfosse Badgery makes Tasmania's first flight from Elwick in a plane he built himself
  • 1914: First Tasmanian troops leave to fight in World War I
  • 1914: The town of Bismarck is renamed Collinsvale due to anti-German sentiment inflamed by the war
  • 1914: State government buys hydro-electric company
  • 1915: Tasmanian legislation establishes Australia's first special authority to create and manage parks and reserves
  • 1915: Serious bushfires
  • 1916: In Tasmania's worst rail disaster, driver and six passengers die, 31 survive injuries, after Launceston-Hobart express crashes near Campania
  • 1916: First all-Tasmanian battalion (the 40th) leaves for World War I
  • 1916: Opening of Great Lakes hydro scheme's first stage,
    Waddamana
    power station
  • 1916: State's first national parks declared at Mount Field and Freycinet
  • 1916: Daylight saving time first introduced as temporary wartime measure
  • 1917: Electrolytic Zinc Company works at Risdon and Australian Commonwealth Carbide's plant at Electrona established
  • 1917: Ridgeway reservoir completed
  • 1919: Worldwide
    Spanish influenza
    epidemic reaches Tasmania, affecting one-third of the population and claiming 171 lives
  • 1919: Ex-World War I airman A. L. Long makes first flight over Bass Strait
  • 1919: Frozen Tasmanian meat exported for the first time

1920–1929

  • 1920: Visit by Prince of Wales, future
    King Edward VIII
  • 1920: Miena dam completed
  • 1920: Launceston-born Hudson Fysh helps found Qantas
  • 1922: Legislation enables women to stand in state elections
  • 1922: Legacy movement starts with founding of Remembrance Club in Hobart by Major-General Sir John Gellibrand
  • 1922: Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park proclaimed
  • 1923: First concert by Hobart
    Symphony Orchestra
  • 1923: Severe flooding in Hobart
  • 1923: Labor's Joseph Lyons, a future prime minister, becomes state premier
  • 1924: Private company starts first Tasmanian radio station, 7ZL (now part of ABC), with regular broadcasts from The Mercury building
  • 1924: Electrolytic Zinc Co makes first superphosphate at Risdon
  • 1925: Workmen open David Collins' grave during conversion of old St David's Cemetery into St David's Park
  • 1925: Osmiridium fields discovered at Adamsfield in south-west
  • 1927: Inquiry into proposed bridge linking Hobart city with eastern shore
  • 1927: Visit by Duke and Duchess of York (future
    Queen Elizabeth
    )
  • 1928:
    Cadbury's
    Claremont factory makes first chocolate
  • 1928: Voting in Tasmanian state elections becomes compulsory (federal voting became compulsory in 1924)
  • 1929:
    Disastrous floods
    , mainly in Northern Tasmania, take 22 lives; dam burst damages Derby township and tin mines
  • 1929: Hobart gets automatic telephone system
  • 1929: Great Depression begins
  • 1929: Legislation creates Hydro-Electric Commission, replacing government department

1930–1939

  • 1931: Tasmanian Harold Gatty and American Wiley Post make record round-the-world flight (eight days, 15 hours)
  • 1932: Ivan and Victor Holyman start air service between Launceston and Flinders Island
  • 1932: Lyell Highway opens, linking Hobart with West Coast
  • 1932: Former premier Joseph Lyons becomes
    prime minister
    , only Tasmanian to hold that office
  • 1933: Commonwealth Grants Commission appointed to inquire into affairs of claimant states, including Tasmania
  • 1934: Holyman Airways (a forerunner of Ansett) launches Launceston–Melbourne service, within months, company plane Miss Hobart disappears over Bass Strait with loss of 12 people, including proprietor Victor Holyman
  • 1934: Election of government led by Albert Ogilvie starts 35 years of continuous Labor governments
  • 1935: Five die when Holyman Airways plane Loina crashes off Flinders Island.
  • 1935: Hobart gets first electric trolley buses
  • 1935: Legislation for three-year state parliament terms
  • 1936: SS Paringa sinks in Bass Strait while towing tanker, 31 die
  • 1936: ABC forms orchestra
  • 1936 (7 September): Last known Tasmanian tiger (thylacine) dies at Hobart's Beaumaris Zoo
  • 1936: First commercial flights use federal aerodrome at Cambridge
  • 1936: Submarine telephone cable service begins between Tasmania and Victoria via King Island
  • 1936: First two area schools (renamed district schools in 1973) open at Sheffield and Hagley
  • 1937: Open of
    Mount Wellington
    summit road, built as Depression relief work project
  • 1937:
    Poliomyelitis
    epidemic
  • 1937: Five-year state parliamentary terms return
  • 1938: Production starts at APPM's
    Burnie
    mill
  • 1938: Work begins on a floating arch bridge across Derwent in Hobart
  • 1939: World War II begins
  • 1939: Death in office of prime minister Joseph Lyons
  • 1939: Royal Hobart Hospital opens on present site

1940–1949

  • 1940: Tasmanian soldiers leave for North African campaign with
    Australian 6th Division
  • 1940: German naval raiders Pinguin and Atlantis lay mines off Hobart and other Australian areas. Hobart closed to shipping because of mine threat; Bass Strait closed after mine sinks British steamer Cambridge.
  • 1941: Tasmanian soldiers leave for
    Australian 8th Division
  • 1941: Australian Newsprint Mills' Boyer plant becomes first in world to produce newsprint from hardwood
  • 1942 (January–March): daylight saving time introduced as wartime measure
  • 1942: Women 18 to 30 called up for war work
  • 1943: Floating-arch pontoon bridge Hobart Bridge opens
  • 1943: Enid Lyons (later Dame Enid), widow of Joseph Lyons, elected first woman member of House of Representatives, winning seat of Darwin (now Braddon).
  • 1944: University of Tasmania begins transfer to Sandy Bay site
  • 1944: State Library established
  • 1945: Rani wins first Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
  • 1946: Australian National Airways plane crashes at Seven Mile Beach, killing 25
  • 1946: Last horse-drawn Hobart cab ceases operation
  • 1946: Poliomyelitis epidemic
  • 1947: War-affected migrants begin arriving from Europe to work for Hydro-Electric Commission
  • 1947: Edward Brooker takes over as Labor premier after Robert Cosgrove's resignation to face corruption and bribery charges
  • 1947: Major flooding in south of state
  • 1948: Margaret McIntyre wins Legislative Council seat in May, becoming the first woman member of Tasmanian Parliament; airliner crash in NSW in September kills her and 12 others.
  • 1948: Robert Cosgrove resumes premiership after acquittal on corruption and bribery charges
  • 1948: ABC forms Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra on permanent basis
  • 1948: Fire destroys Ocean Pier
  • 1948: Antarctic research station established on Macquarie Island
  • 1949: Poliomyelitis epidemic
  • 1949: Government introduces compulsory X-rays in fight against tuberculosis
  • 1949: Tasmanian politician Dame Enid Lyons, widow of former prime minister Joseph Lyons, becomes first woman to reach federal ministry rank, as Executive Council vice-president
  • 1949: Government buys Theatre Royal

1950–1959

  • 1951: Brighton army camp gets first intake of national service trainees
  • 1951: Hartz Mountains National Park proclaimed
  • 1951: Tasmanian Historical Research Association commences
  • 1951: Serious bushfires
  • 1951: Italian and German migrants arrive to work under contract for
    Hydro-Electric Commission
  • 1952: First woman elected to
    Hobart City Council
  • 1952: Severe floods
  • 1952: Government ends free hospital scheme
  • 1952: Single state licensing body formed for hotels and clubs
  • 1953: Tasman Limited diesel train service begins between Hobart and northern towns
  • 1953: Housing Department created to manage public housing
  • 1953:
    fluoridated
    water
  • 1954:
    Prince Philip
    . As part of 150th anniversary celebrations, she unveils monument to pioneer British settlers
  • 1954: Hobart Rivulet area damaged as severe floods affect southern and eastern Tasmania
  • 1954: Metropolitan Transport Trust formed
  • 1954: Tattersalls Lotteries moves headquarters from Hobart to Melbourne
  • 1954: Spouses of property owners get right to vote in Legislative Council elections
  • 1955: Royal commission appointed to inquire into
    Sydney Orr
  • 1955: House of Assembly gets first two women members, Liberals Mabel Miller and Amelia Best
  • 1955: Hobart becomes first Australian city to get parking meters
  • 1955: Proclamation of Lake Pedder National Park (later extended to form Southwest National Park).
  • 1955: First ingot poured at Bell Bay aluminium refinery
  • 1955: Labor Party's federal conference in Hobart brings Australian Labor Party split over industrial groups to head, leading to formation of Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist), later Democratic Labor Party
  • 1955:
    Burnie
  • 1956: University of Tasmania Council dismisses Professor Sydney Orr, alleging improper conduct by him with female student; Orr launches unsuccessful court action against university for wrongful dismissal
  • 1956: Tasmania gets first woman mayor, Dorothy Edwards of Launceston
  • 1957: Water Act establishes Rivers and Water Supply Commission
  • 1958: Hobart waterside works block two Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist) members, father Frank Hursey and son Denis, from working in dispute over their objection to paying union levy that would partly go to ALP; police guard Hurseys after court order; Supreme Court awards them damages
  • 1959: MG Car Club of Tasmania formed
  • 1959:
    Princess of Tasmania becomes first roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry on Bass Strait
    run
  • 1959: High Court verdict in Hursey case upholds unions' right to levy members for political purposes, expel those who refuse to pay
  • 1959: Federal Government reduces
    claimant
    states to two, Tasmania and Western Australia

1960–1969

  • 1960: Severe floods in Derwent Valley and Hobart, with business basements under water and houses washed away
  • 1960: Television stations ABT-2 (
    TVT-6 (now WIN
    ) start programs from Mount Wellington transmitters
  • 1960: New jail opens at Risdon
  • 1960: Hobart trams cease, succeeded by electric
    trolley buses
  • 1960: First meeting of Inland Fisheries Commission
  • 1960: Opening of new State Library headquarters
  • 1960: First city parking station opens in Argyle Street
  • 1961: Construction of Hobart-Sydney ferry terminal begins
  • 1962: Australian Paper Makers Ltd's
    Port Huon
    mill opens
  • 1962:
    TEMCO
    's Bell Bay ferro-manganese plant begins production
  • 1962: Government subsidises municipal
    fluoridation
    schemes
  • 1963: University of Tasmania completes move to Sandy Bay site; Universities Commission recommends medical school
  • 1964: Tasman Bridge opens for traffic, old pontoon bridge towed away
  • 1964: Hobart's water supply fluoridated
  • 1964: Glenorchy proclaimed city
  • 1965: First Tasmanians leave for Vietnam War under national service scheme
  • 1965: Ferry Empress of Australia makes first Sydney–Hobart voyage
  • 1965: Official opening of Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music
  • 1965: Bass Strait
    oil drilling
    begins
  • 1966: Huge copper reserves found in
    Mount Lyell
    area
  • 1966: Savage River iron ore agreements involving $62 million signed
  • 1967 (February): Black Tuesday bushfires claim 62 lives—53 in Hobart area—and destroy more than 1300 homes
  • 1967: Tasmanian joins other states in approving full constitutional rights for Aboriginal people
  • 1967: Hydro-Electric Commission tables plans in State Parliament to dam Lake Pedder in South-West
  • 1967:
    breathalyser
    tests introduced
  • 1968: Full adult franchise introduced for Legislative Council elections
  • 1968: Hobart trolley buses cease, replaced by diesel vehicles
  • 1968: State abolishes death penalty
  • 1968: Savage River iron ore project officially opens
  • 1968:
    Tamar River
    opens
  • 1969: Tasmanians vote Labor Party out after 35 years in office, Liberal-Centre Party forms coalition government
  • 1969: Worst floods in 40 years hit Launceston

1970–1979

A video by the ABC about the introduction of daylight saving time.
  • 1970: Parliament legislates for permanent daylight saving time
  • 1970: State marine research laboratories at
    Taroona
    open
  • 1970: Electrolytic Zinc Company opens $6 million residue treatment plant
  • 1971: First
    Triabunna
  • 1971: APPM Ltd's Wesley Vale paper plant opens
  • 1971: First state Aboriginal conference held in Launceston
  • 1972: Conservationists lose battle to prevent flooding of Lake Pedder in South-West for hydro-electric scheme
  • 1972: Liberal-Centre Party coalition government collapses
  • 1972: Tasmanian College of Advanced Education opens in Hobart
  • 1972: Ferry Princess of Tasmania makes last Tasmanian voyage
  • 1972: Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre opens at Tasmanian Aboriginal Information Centre
  • 1973: Coastal freighter Blythe Star sinks with loss of three men, seven survivors spend eight days adrift in lifeboat before coming ashore on Forestier Peninsula
  • 1973: Australia's first legal casino opens at Wrest Point Hotel Casino
  • 1973: Sir Stanley Burbury, formerly chief justice, becomes first Australian-born governor of Tasmania
  • 1974: Three die when boiler explosion demolishes laundry at Mt St Canice Convent, Sandy Bay
  • 1974: Tasmanian workers under state wages board awards get four weeks annual leave; woman awarded equal pay
  • 1974: Hobart suburban rail services cease
  • 1975: Freighter
    MV Lake Illawarra
     crashes into Tasman Bridge, causing 12 deaths and bringing down part of bridge; temporary Bailey bridge put across Derwent
  • 1975: Police academy completed at Rokeby
  • 1975: Hotels allowed to open for Sunday trading
  • 1975:
    Totalizator Agency Board
    begins operating
  • 1976: Members of Aboriginal community ritually cremate Truganini's remains, scatter ashes in D'Entrecasteaux Channel
  • 1976: Tasmanian Wilderness Society formed
  • 1976: Freight equalisation scheme subsidises sea cargo to and from state
  • 1977: Repaired Tasman Bridge reopens to traffic
  • 1977: Royal visit, during which Aboriginal activist Michael Mansell presents the Queen with land rights claim
  • 1977: Tasmanian Film Corporation launched
  • 1978: Australian National Railways takes over Tasmanian rail system; Tasman Limited ceases operations, ending regular passenger train services in state
  • 1978: Hydro-Electric Commission proposes power scheme involving
    King
    rivers
  • 1979: Tasmanian College of Advanced Education moves to Launceston
  • 1979: State's first ombudsman begins duties
  • 1979: Hobart gets increased Saturday morning shopping
  • 1979: Government expands South-West conservation area to more than one-fifth of state's total area

1980–1989

1990–1999

  • 1990:
    Sea Cat Tasmania, built in Hobart by Incat
    , begins summer crossings of Bass Strait
  • 1990: King Island scheelite mine closes
  • 1990: World Rowing Championships held on Lake Barrington, near Sheffield
  • 1991: Savings Bank of Tasmania and Tasmanian Bank amalgamate as Trust Bank
  • 1991:
    tin mine and Devonport Ovaltine
    factory close
  • 1992: Aboriginal people occupy Risdon Cove in protest over land claims
  • 1992: Royal Hobart Hospital
    nursing school
    closes, ending hospital-based nursing training in Tasmania
  • 1992: Seven women ordained as
    St David's Cathedral
  • 1992: State's
    unemployment rate
    reaches 12.2% as jobs decline in public and private sectors; rallies of angry workers force temporary closure of House of Assembly
  • 1993: Christine Milne (Tasmanian Greens) becomes first female leader of a Tasmanian political party
  • 1993:
    Spirit of Tasmania replaces Abel Tasman
    on Bass Strait ferry service
  • 1993: Tasmania's unemployment rate reaches 13.4%
  • 1993: State Government reduces total of
    municipalities
    from 46 to 29, number of departments from 17 to 12
  • 1994: End to 80 years of dam building as state's last power station, Tribute, opens near Tullah
  • 1994: HMAS Huon naval base decommissioned
  • 1995: All-day Saturday shop trading begins
  • 1995: Government announces legislation to transfer 38 km2 of culturally significant land to Aboriginal community, including
    Oyster Cove
  • 1995: States unemployment rate falls to 9.6% as number of Tasmanians in work sets record
  • 1996 (28 April): Gunman Martin Bryant kills 35 people and injures 20 more in shooting rampage at Port Arthur historic site; Supreme Court sentences him to life imprisonment
  • 1996: Former federal Liberal minister Peter Nixon heads Commonwealth state inquiry into Tasmanian economy
  • 1997: Tasmania becomes first state to formally apologise to Aboriginal community for past actions connected with the '
    stolen generation
    '.
  • 1997: Hobart Ports Corporation succeeds marine board
  • 1997: State Parliament repeals two century-old laws that together made all male homosexual activity criminal
  • 1997: Royal Hobart Hospital announces part privatisation
  • 1997: Official opening of Hobart's Aquatic Centre
  • 1997: Nixon report recommendations include single chamber State Parliament with 27 members, government asset sales
  • 1997: About 800
    gaming machines
    introduced into 55 Tasmanian hotels, clubs amid predictions of major social problems
  • 1998: Federal Government sells Hobart and Launceston airports
  • 1998: Subsidiary Kendell Airlines takes over Ansett's Tasmanian services
  • 1998: Parliament reduced from 54 members to 40–25 Members of the House of Assembly and 15 Members of the Legislative Council
  • 1998: Legislation passed to separate Hydro-Electric Commission into three bodies: Aurora Energy, Transend Networks and Hydro Tasmania.
  • 1998: Bushfires destroy six houses in Hobart suburbs, burn out 30 km2
  • 1998 (December): Storms and massive seas claim six lives in Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
  • 1999: Wild winds and heavy rain caused chaos across Tasmania, one casualty being the Ferris Wheel at the Royal Hobart Regatta which blew over onto the Gee Whizzer ride. 113 km/h winds in Hobart, 158 km/h winds on
    Mount Wellington
    .
  • 1999: Tasmanian cricketer David Boon announced his retirement from Sheffield Shield cricket
  • March 1999: Tasmania is almost booked out for the millennium New Year's Eve party—a once-in-1000-year event for Tasmania's key resorts, hotels, motels and restaurants
  • 1999: Albanian refugees from Kosovo housed at Brighton military camp, renamed Tasmanian Peace Haven
  • 1999: Legislation passed to give Aboriginal community control of Wybalenna, Flinders Island
  • 1999:
    Colonial State Bank
    of NSW takes over Trust Bank
  • 1999: Official opening of Port Arthur Visitor Centre
  • 1999: Queen Alexandra Hospital building leased to private operators
  • 1999 (25 October): Labor part stalwart Eric Reece, hailed as Tasmania's greatest premier, died in Hobart, aged 90
  • 1999: Proclamation of
    Tasmanian Seamounts Marine Reserve
    , Australia's first deep-sea reserve
  • 1999: Tasmania voted the best temperate island in the world by the world's largest travel magazine, Conde Nast Traveler

2000–present

See also

References and sources

References
  1. ISBN 978-1-74237-068-2
  2. ^ Clements, Nicholas (2013), Frontier Conflict in Van Diemen's Land (Ph.D. thesis) (PDF), University of Tasmania, pp. 324, 325
  3. ^ Clements, Nicholas (2013), Frontier Conflict in Van Diemen's Land (Ph.D. thesis) (PDF), University of Tasmania, pp. 329–331
  4. ^ Bonwick, James: The Last of the Tasmanians, p 270-295
  5. ^ Ryan, Lyndall: The Aboriginal Tasmanians, 1991
  6. ^ Baker, W. T (1961), Adventure Bay - explorers landfall, retrieved 17 March 2020
  7. ^ Van Diemen's Land. Legislative Council; Barnard, James, fl. 1839-1880., (printer.); Tasmania Laws, etc (1838), [Collection of Acts passed by the Legislative Council of Van Diemen's Land concerning prisoners and prisons], retrieved 17 March 2020{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ Farrell, David M. The Australian Electoral System. p. 27.
Sources
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