Where is van diemens land

Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single entry from a reference work in OR for personal use for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice. Oxford Reference. Publications Pages Publications Pages.

Recently viewed 0 Save Search. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Subscriber sign in You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Username Please enter your Username. Password Please enter your Password. Forgot password? Britain and France were at war and this fear was increased by the presence in the Pacific of two French ship, Le Geographe and Le Naturaliste , under the command of Captain Nicolas Baudin — The role of these ships was to map and chart the southern coasts of the land mass known as New Holland including Van Diemen's Land.

In answer to this threat, the British decided to set up new settlements at strategic locations on the island. Lieutenant John Bowen — , established the first non-Indigenous colony at Risdon Cove on the Derwent River in the second half of Risdon Cove, later renamed Hobart, was also the site of the first conflict between the local Aboriginal peoples and the newly arrived British soldiers and settlers. Bowen's orders included the instruction that should any foreign ship land or attempt to form a settlement, he should immediately protect the sovereignty of the land for Britain.

However, Bowen and his band of soldiers, sailors, settlers and convicts abandoned the site in because they believed the soil was poor and water scarce, and the group moved to a lower section of the Derwent River. Arriving there he declared that the site at Port Phillip was unsuitable and he proceeded to the Derwent River where John Bowen had previously established a base. After reaching the Derwent River in , Collins disapproved of the location and soon chose and named Sullivan Cove as a better harbour and the site for Hobart Town.

In the discoverd that Van Diemen's Land was an island and not joined to the mainland as had originally been thought. They also discovered that the climate and soil were infinitely richer and more productive than those of Sydney. The relative isolation of the colony with particularly treacherous currents also meant that it could become a dumping ground for the most intractable of convicts.

By , the settlements of Hobart, Risdon and Launceston had all been founded. Van Diemen's Land developed in population but did gain a particularly bad reputation due to the hard core convicts that ended up there. By it was clear that the island would need to administer itself and it was formally separated from New South Wales. Its new Lieutenant Governor George Arthur made it clear that he intended to initiate a new and harsh regime.

He believed that their work should be 'hard enough to bring home to the miscreants all the abomination of their wrongdoings, while at the same time setting them the example of a righteous master from whome their black hearts might well pick up a sense of goodness. The very name of the place could send a shudder down convicts' backs. In fact the association of Van Diemen's Land with harshness meant that the authorities deliberately changed the name of the colony in to try and shake off the association.