TASMANIA - AUSTRALIA’S ISLAND STATE
Tasmania is an island State of Australia, situated several hundred
kilometres south of the mainland across Bass Strait.
Australia's magnificent island state of Tasmania was originally
home to indigenous Aborigines for thousands of years.
Dutch explorer Abel Tasman (from whom the island takes its name)
was the first white man to see the island, discovering it in 1642
and originally naming it Van Diemen’s Land.
The island was later settled by the British initially as an outpost
for some of their worst convicts in the early 1800's.
The colony slowly developed in robust, courageous and sometimes
brutal isolation for generations.
Those bitter-sweet days were the foundation for today’s unique
and prosperous State with a diversification of industrial enterprise
utilising the available resources.
Tasmanians have learnt to create and foster ingenious, industrious
endeavours whilst still enjoying the unparalleled beauty of the
State, from the raw wilderness to the lush pasture land that encompasses
some of the most productive agricultural land in the world.
Tasmania has much to offer by the way of its great food and wines,
its tremendous variety of scenery, its wilderness and the friendliness
and warmth of its people.
An indication of how much other people like Tasmania is the fact
that the State has more visitors per year than its entire population.
Tasmania is closer to the Equator than Rome or Chicago, enjoys
a cool, temperate and stable climate and has the cleanest air
in the world.
The State has a population of around half a million people, mainly
scattered throughout three regions in the south, north, and on
the north-west coast, with smaller centres on the east and west
coasts and the north-east.
The capital city of Hobart is nestled under Mount Wellington
on the shores of the Derwent River and has a population of around
200,000, while other major regional centres include Launceston
in the north (85,000) and Devonport and Burnie on the north-west
coast (total population around 40,000).
Tasmania’s island economy suffers somewhat from the lack
of critical mass of people, but not from the enormous efforts
of those people in industry and agriculture or arts and crafts
and many other sectors.
With some of the cleanest air and purest water in the world,
it’s no surprise Tasmania produces some of the best cheese,
wool, seafood, beer, forestry products, fruit and vegetables in
the world, to name but a few of its magnificent produce.
Tasmania’s mineral wealth is significant and secondary industries
in the areas of ship building, and information technology is world
class.
Thank you
Martin for this article
