In recent geological times Tasmania has been volcanically inactive and has 'rounded smooth' mountain ranges comparable to mainland Australia. The Central Highlands and the south western areas are the most mountainous regions and these cover most of the central, west and south west parts of the state. The central east area is quite flat by comparison, and is mostly used for agriculture, although various types of farming activity can be seen all over Tasmania.

The West Coast has historically over 150 years of mineral exploitation and exploration and is a vital region to the states economy. The areas high rainfall powers some of the hydro-electric schemes, and the revenue from mineral activities is important.

Tasmania is a diverse and natural environment ranging from mountains and rainforest on the west coast to sandy beaches on the east coast.

The capital city is Hobart and in the north Launceston is the central city. These are modern cities which give Tasmanians an enviable lifestyle.

Nearly 40% of this state is protected wilderness, national parks, marine reserves and forest, so much so that Tasmania has been granted World Heritage status.

Most areas of the island are accessible within a few hours by road.

One of the tallest species of eucalyptus trees in the world can be found in Tasmania, together with plant and animal diversity of world environmental significance.

Tasmania has a strong colonial heritage as can be seen in the Georgian and Victorian architecture abundant throughout the state. There are many fine examples particularly in Hobart the capital and Launceston the islands second largest city
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Indigenous People

Evidence has been found to suggest that long before the island was cut off from the mainland Tasmanian aborigines inhabited the land at least 35,000 years ago. The Tasmanian Aboriginal people were divided into nine difference ethnic groups.
At the time of British settlement on the island in 1803 the indigenous population was estimated to be between 5,000 and 10,000 but by 1833 the population had decreased to 300 mainly through persecution and disease

Animals

Thylacine
Tasmania was home to the now extinct thylacine and, although this animal was a marsupial,it resembled a wild dog. The Thylacine was locally known as the Tasmanian Tiger because it had distinctive striping across its back.On the mainland of Australia it became extinct much earlier mainly because of the introduction of the dingo.It became extinct in Tasmania due to persecution by farmers, government funded hunters and later due to collectors for overseas museums. The last known Thylacine died in captivity in 1936. Alleged sightings have been recorded over the years but none have been proved.

Tasmanian Devil
The Tasmanian Devil is yet another native Tasmanian marsupial. It is about the size of a small dog but heavier set and more muscular. Black with white patches, it is renowned for giving off an offensive odour when irritated or stressed. It also gives off a loud screeching noise and has a vicious temperament.

Populations of the animals have greatly been reduced due to Devil Facial Tumour Disease. The tumours occur on the face and in the mouth of the animals and it is believed they then starve to death. The disease is spread between individuals when fighting as it is common for them to bite each others faces.

Some national parks and zoos have breeding programmes to try to ensure the Devils survival and create a disease free population.
In the wild, traffic can be a major problem, as many Devil become victims of road accidents.

Birds
Tasmania has 12 endemic bird species.

Honeyeaters (4 species)
The yellow wattlebird - the worlds largest honeyeater
The yellow-throated honeyeater
The black headed honeyeater
The strong-billed honeyeater

Australo-Papuan warblers (3 species)
The Tasmanian thorbill
The Scrubtit
The Tasmanian Scrubwren

Pardalote - The rare and endangered forty spotted pardalote
Old-world flycatcher - The Dusk Robin
Corvid - The black currawong
Parrot - The green rosella
Rail - The Tasmanian native hen,Australia's only flightless bird other than the giant ratites, Emu and Southern Cassowary Bird.
The endemic Tasmanian Emu was exterminated in the mid 1800's

Frogs
Tasmania is also home to 11 species of frogs. Three of these are indiginous to Tasmania.

The Tasmanian Tree Frog
The Tasmanian Froglet
The Growling Grass Frog

History
Although the first reported sighting of Tasmania by Europeans was on 24th November 1642 the first settlement did not appear for another 161 years.

A party was sent to Tasmania from Sydney under the command of Lt. John Bowen in order to prevent the French laying claim to the island. They established the first British settlement at Risdon Cove on the east bank of the Derwent estuary in 1803 and a year later in 1804 a second settlement was established by Captain David Collins some 5km to the south on the western side of the Derwent. This was known as Sullivan’s Cove and the settlement thrived because water was much more plentiful here. Later this second settlement was named Hobart Town(later shortened to Hobart) after the British Colonial Secretary of the time, Lord Hobart. The original settlement at Risden was eventually abandoned.

Early settlers were mainly convicts and their guards. They were set the task of developing agriculture and other industries. In an area known as Van Diemens Land numerous convict-based settlements and harsh penal colonies sprung up namely Port Arthur in the south-east and Macquarie Harbour on the west coast.

Economy
Tasmania has a long history of having a very erratic economy. Reasons for this have varied over the years and have been attributed to everything from lack of infrastructure to decline in population to the lack of encouragement in immigration and lack of foreign investment.

Mining for copper, zinc, tin and iron have always been a mainstay of industry in Tasmania as well as agriculture, forestry and tourism.

In more recent times as manufacturing went into decline during the 90’s the experienced and trained workers were forced to move away to mainland Australia to seek employment. Favourite places to go have been Melbourne and Sydney and this drain of the workforce has slowed economic recovery in these areas.

Seafood have long been exported especially Abalone, Crayfish and Atlantic Salmon.

Since 2001 Australia has had a turnaround in fortunes due mainly to favourable economic conditions in the world market.This in turn has had a roll on effect for the state of Tasmania.New ferries running between the mainland and the island have given the tourism industry a boom.Three Spirit of Tasmania ferries were brought into service 2002/03 bringing tourists from the mainland daily.

The property market has been on the upturn and business growth is only being restricted by lack of skilled labour. Chefs, medical professionals, building workers, metal and auto trades and skilled engineers are all in short supply.

The Tasmanian Government is a major employer together with the Federal Group who own hotels and casinos and Gunns Ltd a forestry company.

Major broad band fibre-optic connection were laid out to the island in the late 1990’s which enable many national companies to base their call centres there.

Interesting facts
On December 3rd 1825 Van Diemen’s Land- Tasmania -was proclaimed a separate colony from New South Wales.In more modern times in fact, in 1967 Tasmania was badly affected by fires resulting in serious loss of property and life.

Tasmania has one of the strictest gun ownership laws on the Australian continent after an incident in 1996 at Port Arthur when a lone gunman Martin Bryant shot dead 35 people and injured 37 others.

The annual Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race attracts many tourists and world media attention.Probably the most famous resident in recent times is Mary Donaldson who on May 14th 2004 married Frederik Crown Prince of Denmark.

Getting there
The best and cheapest method of travelling across Bass Strait is by air.The main carriers are Qantas and its subsidiary JetStar, and Virgin Blue, which fly direct to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide. The main airports include the Hobart International Airport and Launceston Airport; the smaller airports are at Burnie and Devonport, and are serviced by Regional Express and Qantaslink, who fly only to Melbourne and the Bass Strait islands.

The domestic sea route is serviced by the Bass Strait passenger/vehicle ferries operated by the Tasmanian Government-and owned by TT-Line. From 1986 the Abel Tasman made six overnight crossings per week between Devonport and Melbourne. The Spirit of Tasmania replaced it in 1993, and performed the same schedule and route. The most recent change happened in 2002 with the replacement of the Spirit by a pair of Superfast ferries, Spirit of Tasmania I and Spirit of Tasmania II, which increased the number of overnight crossings to fourteen, plus extra daylight crossings in peak times. A third ship, the somewhat smaller Spirit of Tasmania III, started the Devonport to Sydney route in January 2004. This service was cancelled by the Tasmanian Government in June 2006 due to the low passenger numbers.

Two container ships run by Toll Shipping also make daily crossings from Burnie to Melbourne.

Hobart port also serves as a stop for visiting cruise ships and prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks was a regular port of call for United States Navy ships returning to America from the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean.

Tasmania is also home to the company International Catamarans, who manufacturer very high-speed aluminium boats (commonly known as the SeaCat) which broke speed records regularly when they were first launched. The Tasmanian Government used them on the Bass Strait crossings, but eventually decided to abandon them due to concerns over their viability and the stability of the vessels in the extreme weather conditions that can be experienced in Bass Strait.

Tasmania and Hobart in particularly, serves as Australia's main sea link to the Antarctic and South Pacific, with the Australian Antarctic Division based in Kingston. Hobart is also the home port of the French ship l'Astrolabe which makes regular supply runs to the French Southern Territories close to and in Antarctica.

Hobart port is the second deepest natural port in the world, second only to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Climate of Tasmania

Tasmania is located between 40°S and 43.5°S with no one place more than 115 kilometres from the sea, its climate is officially listed as temperate maritime.

On the coastal regions the daily temperatures range from about 7°C, but inland, the range can be almost double this.

A large amount of the landmass of Tasmania is mountainous, with the peaks of Mount Ossa reaching a height of 1617 rising from a central plain.
There is also a mountainous area in the northeast of Tasmania with its highest peak being Ben Lomond at 1573 metres.

Whilst the variation in temperature is mainly determined by the height of the land and its distance from the coast, some can be attributed to the prevailing westerly winds which have an effect on cloud and rainfall.

Summers months are mild with much longer days than in the winter.
Because the sun reaches a maximum angle of 70 to 73 degrees in the middle of the summer, the days can have around fifteen hours of daylight. However, in winter, the angle of the sun is only 20 to 23 degrees with the shortest day only having around nine hours of daylight.

It is located at an latitude of 40 degrees south Longitude and 144 degrees east in the path of the "Roaring Forties" wind which encircles the globe. The climate has often been compared with England although the seasons are the opposite to those of the Northern Hemisphere. Summer is from December to February when the average temperature is 70 degrees Fahrenheit and Winter is from June to August with an average maximum temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Annual rainfall varies from 626 mm in Hobart to 2400 mm on the west coast.The prevailing weather pattern is from the west to the east. The east coast of Tasmania is nearly always milder and warmer than the rest of the island.The state does have four distinctive seasons with warm, sunny days and mild evenings in the Summer. Tasmania has a classic Autumn which can be quite cool with frosty nights and the deciduous trees having autumnal colours and then losing their leaves.

Winter brings lots of snows to the higher peaks (mt Ossa being the highest at 5300 ft) and shorter daylight hours. Days can be quite cold and sudden storms can occur.

Spring is very much like England with spring showers and plants waking up to give summer displays.

Tasmanians breathe some of the cleanest air on the planet.