a b "Tasmanian Aboriginal place names". Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre. Archived from the original on 19 November 2019 . Retrieved 30 November 2019. Tasmania – Hobart in particular – serves as Australia's chief sea link to Antarctica, with the Australian Antarctic Division located in Kingston. Hobart is also the home port of the French ship l'Astrolabe, which makes regular supply runs to the French Southern Territories near and in Antarctica.

It is just in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park. The crater is a rimless circular flat-floored depression, 1.2km (0.75mi) in diameter, in mountainous and heavily forested terrain. It is East of the West Coast Range and the former North Mount Lyell Railway formation. Tasmania is a hotspot for giant habitat trees and the large animal species that occupy them, notably the endangered Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle ( Aquila audax fleayi), the Tasmanian masked owl ( Tyto novaehollandiae castanops), the Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish ( Astacopsis gouldi), the yellow wattlebird ( Anthochaera paradoxa), the green rosella ( Platycercus caledonicus) and others. Tasmania is also home to the world's only three migratory parrots, the critically endangered Orange-bellied parrot ( Neophema chrysogaster), the Blue-winged parrot ( Neophema chrysostoma), and the fastest parrot in the world, the swift parrot ( Lathamus discolor). [110] The French D'Entrecasteaux Expedition of 1792–93 had anchored twice during its search of the missing La Pérouse in the Baie de la Recherche (Recherche Bay) in far-south Tasmania. During their stay, the crew took botanical, astronomical, and geomagnetic observations which were the first of their kind performed on Australian soil. As well as this, they engaged in amicable relations with the locals and environment, gifting the area a "French garden", in which "the relatively extensive, well-documented (both pictorially and written) encounters [...] between [them] provided a very early opportunity for meetings and mutual observation". [155] Robson, L.L. (1991) A history of Tasmania. Volume II. Colony and state from 1856 to the 1980s Melbourne, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-553031-4.Strahan Climate Statistics". Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology. Archived from the original on 23 November 2004 . Retrieved 1 January 2009. Until 2012, Tasmania was the only state in Australia with an above-replacement total fertility rate; Tasmanian women had an average of 2.24 children each. [123] By 2012 the birth rate had slipped to 2.1 children per woman, bringing the state to the replacement threshold, but it continues to have the second-highest birth rate of any state or territory (behind the Northern Territory). [124]

Complaints from Victorians about recently released convicts from Van Diemen's Land re-offending in Victoria was one of the contributing reasons for the eventual abolition of transportation to Van Diemen's Land in 1853. [19] Demographics [ edit ] Population summary [ edit ] In the novel The Terror by Dan Simmons (2007). In this novel about the ill-fated exploration by HMS Erebus and HMS Terror to discover the Northwest Passage. The ships left England in May 1846 and were never heard from again, although since then much has been discovered about the fate of the 129 officers and crew. References are made to Van Diemen's Land during the chapters devoted to Francis Crozier. With the passing of the Australian Constitutions Act 1850, Van Diemen's Land (along with New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, and Western Australia) was granted responsible self-government with its own elected representative and parliament. On 1 January 1856, the colony's name was officially changed from Van Diemen's Land to Tasmania. The last penal settlement in Tasmania was closed in 1877. Tasmania is the smallest state in Australia. It also has the smallest population. The total population of Tasmania is just over 500,000 (September 2014).Main article: Ecology of Tasmania Ferns in Hellyer Gorge, to the northeast of Savage River National Park The Tasmanian Devil, Tasmania's state animal emblem About 1.7% of the Tasmanian population are employed by local government. [145] Other major employers include Nyrstar, Norske Skog, Grange Resources, Rio Tinto, [146] the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hobart, and Federal Group. Small business is a large part of the community life, including Incat, Moorilla Estate and Tassal. In the late 1990s, a number of national companies based their call centres in the state after obtaining cheap access to broad-band fibre optic connections. [147] [143] a b "3218.0 – Regional Population Growth, Australia, 2016–17: Main Features". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 24 April 2018. Archived from the original on 13 October 2018 . Retrieved 13 October 2018. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2017. The impetus to change the state flag is a part of the broader push to change the national flag of Australia.

The 2013 ABC telemovie The Outlaw Michael Howe is set in Van Diemen's Land and tells the story of bushranger Michael Howe's convict-led rebellion. Platypus in Tasmania". DPIPWE. Archived from the original on 8 March 2020 . Retrieved 2 September 2021.

Ryan, Lyndall (2012), Tasmanian Aborigines, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, pp.93–100, ISBN 978-1-74237-068-2 Van Diemen's Land is the setting of Richard Flanagan's novels Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish (2002) and Wanting (2008).

On 28 April 1996, in the Port Arthur massacre, lone gunman Martin Bryant shot and killed 35 people and injured 21 others. The use of firearms was reviewed, and new gun ownership laws were adopted nationwide. The Tasmanian temperate rainforests cover a few different types. These are also considered distinct from the more common wet sclerophyll forests, though these eucalypt forests often form with rainforest understorey and ferns (such as tree-ferns) are usually never absent. Rainforest found in deep gullies are usually difficult to traverse due to dense understorey growth, such as from horizontal ( Anodopetalum biglandulosum). Higher-elevation forests (~500 to 800 m) have smaller ground vegetation and are thus easier to walk in. The most common rainforests usually have a 50-metre [82] canopy and are varied by environmental factors. Emergent growth usually comes from eucalyptus, which can tower another 50 metres higher (usually less), providing the most common choice of nesting for giant wedge-tailed eagles.Ryan, Lyndall (2012), Tasmanian Aborigines, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, pp.4, 43, ISBN 978-1-74237-068-2