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Between 25,000 and 40,000 years ago it is likely that humans arrived in Tasmania. Tasmanian Aboriginals lived farther southward than any other people at about 20,000 years ago. In caves in the southwestern part of the island images have been dated at about 14,000 years. Bass Strait as a land bridge appears to have been closed off about 12,000 to 13,000 years ago.
The first reported sighting of Tasmania by a European was on November 24th 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.
The first penal settlement was established by the British in 1803 at what is now Hobart. The early settlers were mostly convicts and their military guards, with the task of developing agriculture and other industries. Numerous other convict-based settlements were made in Van Diemen's Land, including secondary prisons, such as the particularly harsh penal colonies at Port Arthur in the south-east and Macquarie Harbor on the West Coast.
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Australian Genealogy
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