AUSSIE FACTS.......TASMANIA

 Another Monday and another lot of Aussie facts this week we are headed to Tassie also known as Tasmania.

Tasmania is an island state of Australia. It is located 240 kilometres to the south of the Australian mainland, separated from it by the Bass Strait, with the archipelago containing the southernmost point of the country

Tasmania has an area of 90,758km2 located 240 kilometres off the southeast of Australia. There are 334 other islands that lie just off Tasmania, ranging from rocky outcrops to three sizeable, inhabited islands.

In 1642 Abel Janszoon Tasman named his 'first sighted land' after his Dutch superior Anthony Van Diemen. While Tasman missed meeting any Aborigines, they knew their land as 'Trowunna', 'Trowenna' or 'Loetrouwitter'. Despite the official name of Van Diemen's Land, usage of the alternative 'Tasmania' gradually grew.

Tasmania was the second colony to be established by the British, in 1803. Tasmania's first penal colony was established at Macquarie Harbour (Sarah Island) on the west coast in 1822.

Named for Anthony van Diemen, governor general of the Dutch East Indies, the island was first encountered by Europeans in 1642 and named by Abel J. Tasman, a celebrated navigator under van Diemen's command. The first British settlers in the early 19th century retained the name.